ABSTRACT
A doctoral dissertation is a specialized piece of research written to satisfy the committee that one has mastered the field of specialty and have made an original contribution to it. In those days of multidisciplinary research, huge amounts of specialized research appear in peer-reviewed journals, just as they do in the sciences. The chances of receiving tenure from an impressive portfolio of peer-reviewed papers in national and international journals are now much better than they were a generation ago. Anthropologist Richard Lee's dissertation research on the Kung San of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa had publishers slavering and with good reason. True mentoring partnerships stem from relationships based on respect for each other and for the field and should last a long time. Most professional archaeologists learn how to write papers in graduate school, which is hardly an ideal environment for doing so, given the many other pressures involved in preparing a seminar paper.
