Writing about Archaeology

In this book, Graham Connah offers an overview of archaeological authorship: its diversity, its challenges, and its methodology.

Graham Connah (Author)

9780521688512, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 March 2010

224 pages, 31 b/w illus. 3 maps
21.5 x 14 x 1.5 cm, 0.31 kg

"Writing About Archaeology imparts practical experience, personal opinion and general advice about writing and publishing on archaeology from the perspective of an accomplished academic archaeologist." -Danielle Y. Cornacchia, Canadian Journal of Archaeology

In this book, Graham Connah offers an overview of archaeological authorship: its diversity, its challenges, and its methodology. Based on his own experiences, he presents his personal views about the task of writing about archaeology. The book is not intended to be a technical manual. Instead, Connah aims to encourage archaeologists who write about their subject to think about the process of writing. He writes with the beginning author in mind, but the book will be of interest to all archaeologists who plan to publish their work. Connah's overall premise is that those who write about archaeology need to be less concerned with content and more concerned with how they present it. It is not enough to be a good archaeologist. One must also become a good writer and be able to communicate effectively. Archaeology, he argues, is above all a literary discipline.

1. Creating the canon: the integral role of writing in archaeology
2. Learning from others: archaeological writers past and present
3. Readership determines form: for whom are we writing?
4. Turning data into text: images of the past
5. The process of writing: 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration
6. Visual explanation: pictures that should talk
7. Pleasing everyone: writing for different types of publication
8. Publishers, editors and referees: devils incarnate or guardian angels?
9. The publication process: creating a quality product
10. The aftermath: reviewers and readers.

Subject Areas: Archaeological theory [HDA], Archaeology [HD]