Acknowledgments

A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th edition - Kate L. Turabian 2007


Acknowledgments

Revising a book that has been used by millions of students over seventy years is no small task. The challenge of bringing Kate Turabian's creation into the twenty-first century was taken up first by Linda J. Halvorson, then editorial director for reference books at the University of Chicago Press, who recognized how the needs of the student writer had changed since the publication of the sixth edition in 1996 and developed a revision plan to address those changing needs.

The key to this plan was assembling a revision team that understood how the Turabian tradition could be reshaped for students researching and writing papers in an electronic age. Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams contributed their expertise both as teachers and as authors of numerous books on the subject of research and writing, including The Craft of Research. The Press's editorial staff was represented on the revision team first by Margaret Perkins, now director of manuscript editing at the New England Journal of Medicine, and later by Mary E. Laur, senior project editor for reference books. Both had played critical roles in the preparation of The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, from which parts 2 and 3 of this book are adapted.

Throughout the revision process, the manuscript (partial and complete) benefited from the advice of reviewers with expertise in various aspects of student research and writing, including Susan Allan (American Journal of Sociology), Christopher S. Allen (international affairs, University of Georgia), Anna Nibley Baker (HealthInsight), Howard Becker (San Francisco), Paul S. Boyer (history, University of Wisconsin—Madison), Christopher Buck (writing, rhetoric, and American cultures, Michigan State University), David Campbell (political science, University of Notre Dame), Erik Carlson (University of Chicago Press), Michael D. Coogan (religious studies, Stonehill College), Daniel Greene (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum), Anne Kelly Knowles (geography, Middlebury College), Lewis Lancaster (East Asian languages and cultures, University of California—Berkeley), Luke Eric Lassiter (humanities, Marshall University Graduate College), James Leloudis (history, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill), Kurt Mosser (philosophy, University of Dayton), Gerald Mulderig (English, DePaul University), Emily S. Rosenberg (history, University of California—Irvine), Anita Samen (University of Chicago Press), Paul Stoller (anthropology and sociology, West Chester University), Anne B. Thistle (biological science, Florida State University), and Richard Valelly (political science, Swarthmore College).

The successors of Kate Turabian at a variety of public and private universities offered valuable insights on dissertation preparation and submission. Reviewers of the appendix included Philippa K. Carter from the University of Pittsburgh; Matthew Hill from the University of Maryland, College Park; Elena Hsiao-ching Hsu from the University of Wisconsin—Madison; Johanna E. D. Parker from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Christine Quigley from Georgetown University. The current occupant of Turabian's own position at the University of Chicago, Colleen Mullarkey, reviewed the manuscript in its entirety and also helped identify the exemplary dissertations from which the sample pages in the appendix are drawn. The authors of these dissertations, who granted permission for their text to be used, are identified in the captions of the relevant figures.

Turning the manuscript into a book required the efforts of another team at the Press. Carol Fisher Saller edited the manuscript, Randolph Petilos proofread the pages, and Victoria Baker prepared the index. Michael Brehm provided the design, while Sylvia Mendoza Hecimovich supervised the production. Christopher Rhodes offered editorial assistance throughout the project. Carol Kasper, Ellen Gibson, and Laura Anderson brought the finished product to market.

The loss of Wayne Booth when the manuscript was nearly complete touched everyone involved with the project, which will stand as his last new work.