(Posted 8-24-00)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Steve Gilliam, 336-334-5371
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DR. BRUBAKER COAUTHORS NEW BOOK
ON THESES, DISSERTATIONS
GREENSBORO—In the world of academia, the doctoral degree is the “union card” that gives scholars and teachers their entrée into higher education careers. But the final and most difficult hurdle has always been the dissertation.
A long-term, intensive project, a dissertation study involves devising and conducting original research, scouring professional literature and writing up the formal study in a document that can range anywhere from 150 to 300 pages in length. Graduate students who move through their classes often hit the wall when it comes to these studies. Only slightly less difficult are master’s degree theses.
“Graduate students are at the most vulnerable point in their programs when they have to organize, execute and write up a dissertation study,” said Dr. Dale L. Brubaker, a professor in the School of Education at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “But before those people can be called ‘Doctor,’ they have to complete the dissertation and, for many it’s the hardest thing they’ll ever have to do.”
Brubaker is co-author of the new book “Theses and Dissertations: A Guide to Planning, Research and Writing,” with Dr. R. Murray Thomas of the University of California at Santa Barbara. The 312-page book was released by Bergin & Garvey, a division of Greenwood Publishing Group. Brubaker and Thomas were previously colleagues at UCSB and “Theses and Dissertations” is their fourth collaboration.
The authors have provided a guide that takes graduate students through the process, from planning and researching to writing and defending the final version of their dissertations and theses. Five major stages of the process are illustrated, with multiple examples from the social and behavioral sciences, humanities and such allied fields as education, social work and business administration.
Pre-publication reviews had praise for the book. Dr. Seymour B. Sarason, professor emeritus of psychology at Yale University said, “Coming generations of graduate students will be in debt to Professors Thomas and Brubaker for providing a long overdue guide to the rite of passage called Theses and Dissertation. This book is realistic, clear and refreshingly sensitive to what the student too frequently does not but needs to know. Why such a book has not been written before is mystifying.”
Brubaker is the author or co-author of 18 books, including "Teacher As Decision Maker," "Creative Survival in Educational Bureaucracies" and "Curriculum Planning: The Dynamics of Theory and Practice." He joined the faculty of the UNCG School of Education in 1971 and teaches in the Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations. He holds the Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University. Thomas is a professor of education emeritus at UC-Santa Barbara and holds the Ph.D. degree from Stanford University.
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