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UAlbany
Researcher Publishes a Top 10 Best Seller
Not
a Novel, But a Doctoral Dissertation
Contact:
Karl Luntta (518) 437-4980
ALBANY,
N.Y. (October 20, 2003) -- A doctoral dissertation may never
crack the New York Times� famous best sellers list, but researchers
find the information invaluable if the topic suits their search.
In the ProQuest Information and Learning list of the Top 10
best-selling dissertations of 2002, second place went to Elba
Alicia Herrero for a dissertation written at UAlbany, �Using
culturally relevant literature and discourse to support literacy
learning among �at-risk� English-language learners."
Herrero,
currently an assistant professor of Multicultural Education
at New Jersey City University, wrote the dissertation for
her 1999 doctoral degree. In it, she outlines ways of organizing
literacy instruction to raise the skill levels of low-achieving,
language-minority students. Students in Herrero's groups,
primarily Dominican students from the Bronx, N.Y., addressed
a variety of concerns with content, form and language in relation
to personal and cultural ways of conceiving literature. The
study extends theories pertaining to the role that prior student
knowledge plays in literacy instruction and helps teachers
to better understand how students� cultural literature, patterns
of discourse, and ways of understanding influence their participation,
performance and learning.
Publishing
a dissertation, also known as a thesis, is a requirement for
earning a doctorate degree from many universities. Dissertations
summarize the original independent research of scholars pursuing
an advanced academic degree, such as a Doctor of Philosophy
(Ph.D.).
The
best-selling dissertation of 2002 was Robert Russell Mackey's
�The Uncivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861---1865
(Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia),� written in 2000
at Texas A&M University. Mackey is a major in the U.S.
Army, as well as a Civil War historian. His thesis examines
whether Confederate guerrilla tactics could have won the day
for the South. Flying in the face of other Civil War research,
Mackey says no.
This
rest of the year's Top 10 list topics reflect its headlines:
healthcare, online banking, executive leadership, and e-business,
among others. Unlike the New York Times list, total sales
of copies, not in the thousands but in the dozens, were enough
to crack the top 10. In all, 776 copies of Top 10 list titles
were sold. Thirteen titles make up the so-called Top 10 list
due to ties
In
dissertation sales, size doesn�t matter. Herrero's entry,
at 162 pages, falls between best sellers such as the 111-page
�Management Control and the Balanced Scorecard: An empirical
test of causal relations� by Mary Ann Malina to the 537-page
�The Coos and Coquille: A Northwest Coast historical anthropology�
by Mark Axel Tveskov.
ProQuest
Information and Learning, a unit of ProQuest Company, creates
and distributes databases for libraries and educational institutions
worldwide. Its dissertation database includes bibliographic
citations for materials ranging from the first U.S. dissertation,
accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester.
The full text of more than one million of these titles is
available in paper and microform formats. For more information
about ProQuest Information and Learning, and for the complete
Top 10 List, visit www.il.proquest.com.
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