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Writing Archaeology, third edition, provides a concise and engaging guide to writing about archaeology in many formats from America's best-known author of popular and academic archaeology books.
Utilizing decades of experience, Brian Fagan provides a straightforward introduction to writing archaeology for all kinds of audiences, from undergraduates and professional archaeologists to the interested public. This third edition is attentive to the recent focus on public and community archaeology, the burgeoning of digital publications and the emergence of artificial intelligence. It sets out how to get started, how to use the tools of skilled writers to make archaeology come alive for readers, and how to get your work revised and finished. It shows how to get your work accepted by publishers and what to expect from this experience. Dealing with several genres of popular publication, articles, columns, blogs, trade books and textbooks, it highlights the differences and similarities in the writing and the publication processes for each type.
For beginning writers and people who have been writing for years, this book speaks directly to those interested in penning for a broad public and is an indispensable aid for the writing careers of all archaeologists and their students.
List of contents
Preface; 1. Come, Let Me Tell You a Tale; 2. Articles and Columns; 3. Genesis; 4. The All-Important Book Proposal; 5. Chapters, Editors, and Agents; 6. Writing the First Draft; 7. Revision, Revision; 8. Production and Beyond; 9. Textbooks; 10. Academic Writing; 11. And Now We Go Digital; 12. Artificial Intelligence; Resources for writers; References; About the Author.
About the author
Brian Fagan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After studying archaeology at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he spent seven years doing archaeology and museum work in Central and East Africa, before coming to the United States in 1966. His original specialty was the African Iron Age, an esoteric subject if ever there was one, and he became involved in the founding of multidisciplinary African history. He came to the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1967 and simultaneously changed intellectual directions, becoming a generalist who wrote about archaeology for general audiences. Since then, he has suffered through the writing of many books, including a series of widely used texts such as
In the Beginning and
People of the Earth. His numerous trade books include
The Rape of the Nile,
The Adventure of Archaeology,
The Little Ice Age,
Fish on Friday, and
Climate Chaos. His other interests include bicycling, cruising under sail, kayaking, good food, and cats. He and his family are (at last count) the proud owners of two cats, seven turtles, and other beasts.
