Writing successful reports and dissertations /

Addressing two very different types of writing in such a brief guide (192 pages) risks losing one audience or the other. Such is the case with Becker (Reading Univ., UK), who has crafted a guide that focuses, in part, on "getting good grades" and "making a comfortable and successful transition from studying to the workplace." Based on what she fashions as the six Ps, the author organizes the book's 25 chapters into parts that traverse pondering to preparing to planning to pausing to producing and polishing. Though well written with helpful tips, the dual focus does not work well for students, although writing instructors may want to evaluate her schema. Libraries will prefer to maintain their collections of traditional style manuals alongside separate guides to writing reports and such guides as Alison Miller's motivating Finish Your Dissertation Once and For All!: How to Overcome Psychological Barriers, Get Results, and Move On with Your Life (2009) or Allan Glatthorn and Randy Joyner's Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation: A Step-by-Step Guide (2012), now in its 3rd edition. Summing Up: Optional. Practitioners/professionals. --Pamela Palmer, emerita, University of Memphis