Theatre Survey
The Journal of the American Society for Theatre Research
Book Review Guidelines
(update 3/21/2005)
If you have any questions on the
following,
please contact the book review editor:
Dr. Edward Ziter
ebz1@nyu.edu
Department of Drama
New York University
721 Broadway, 3rd floor
New York, NY 10012-6807
 Book Review Policies
Theatre Survey is chartered by the American
Society for Theatre Research as a theatre history journal. Its
theatrical and historical orientations are both broadly conceived.
Performance-centered and historiographic studies from all points
across the historical, cultural, and methodological spectra are
welcome. Dramatic literature studies not substantially related
to actual performance are outside the journal’s purview.
We welcome reviews of books that share the journal’s
focus on performance-centered and historiographic research. As
a widely indexed journal with a substantial circulation, Theatre
Survey is central to shaping and expanding the field of theatre history, cultivating
a diverse range of critical perspectives and engaging the current
conversations in the academy. Reviews are an important part of
this project, engaging new directions in the field, helping to
create an audience, and analyzing both the contributions and limits
of new theatre research. Typically the book review editor identifies
and invites appropriate reviewers, but anyone one is welcome to
contact the editor to explain both interest and expertise, or
to propose reviews. It is best to contact the book review editor
before submitting a review to insure that the book has not already
been assigned. All reviews are subject to final approval by the
book review editor in consultation with the journal editor.
Content and Approach
Every review should place the book in the context
of existing scholarship, detailing the critical inquiries the
book engages without embellishment or exaggeration. If these engagements
are limited you should delineate these limits while still respecting
the goals of the book. If the book fails to follow through with
its objectives you should point this out while still acknowledging
where the book is valuable. Brief commentary on distinctive aspects
of the scholarly apparatus—such as illustrations, bibliography,
documentation, index, and appendices—can also provide readers
with helpful information. Because of the requirements of indexing,
it is essential that you mention within the first line or two
of your review the precise name of the book you are reviewing
and the author’s name.
Submitting the Review
Please submit your review as an MS-Word attachment
to: ebz1@nyu.edu. If the review
contains three or fewer diacritical marks, please alert the reviewer
in the e-mail message to insure that the marks are not lost in
electronic transmission. If the review contains four or more diacritical
marks, please also print a hard copy, circle the diacritical marks,
and mail the hard copy to:
Edward Ziter
Department of Drama
New York University
721 Broadway, 3rd Fl
New York, NY 10012
Hardcopy submission is only necessary when the
review contains four or more diacritical marks.
Editing Process
The Journal does not provide authors with proofs
prior to publication. The book review editor will edit for spelling,
punctuations, and clarity. However, the editor will contact the
reviewer when substantive changes are considered.
Length
Single book reviews should run between 750 and
1,000 words. Multiple book reviews should run between 1,500 and
2,000 words. Reviews exceeding these lengths will be returned
for revision and can delay publication.
Format
Double space your review with a five point hanging
indent for new paragraphs.
Begin with the details of publication in the
following order: title, author/editor, place of publication, publisher,
date, pages (separating out introductory pages: pp. xiv + 245),
illustrations (if any), price, and binding.
The following are examples of listing style for
the Book Reviews:
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Out on Stage: Lesbian and Gay
Theatre in the Twentieth Century. By Alan Sinfield. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000; pp. 407. $29.95 hardcover. |
| |
Straight with a Twist: Queer
Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality. Edited by Calvin
Thomas. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000;
pp. 290. $49.95 hardback, $18.95 paperback. |
| |
The World Shakespeare Bibliography,
19801996. Edited by James L. Harner. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press (in association with the Folger Shakespeare
Library, Washington, DC), 2000. CD-ROM. $810. |
There is no final punctuation after the reviewer’s
affiliation, and a comma (not dash) before it:
Reviewed by Thomas Postlewait, The Ohio State
University
Stylistic Matters
Refer to yourself in the first person, not as
“the reviewer” or “this writer.” Do NOT cite additional
sources. When quoting the reviewed book, keep the quotations short,
avoiding indented quotations. If quotations are necessary, list
the page number in parentheses following the quotation. Because
of the requirements of indexing, it is essential that you mention
within the first line or two of your review the precise name of
the book you are reviewing and the author’s name. Avoid the
generic use of male nouns and pronouns when referring to both
sexes, where such editing can be done in a clear and graceful
way and without contrivance. Also avoid use of the feminine article
in reference to ships, countries, etc.: France, its people.
Copy Editing
Please be certain that you are familiar with
Theatre Survey and its
book review section before you submit your materials. Published
reviews are reliable models for the type and range of reviews
that interested us. They are documented according to the Chicago
Manual of Style, 14th
edition and rely on Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary for spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation Please consult
these sources on your own. In addition, be aware of the following:
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1) |
Numbered chapters referenced in reviews should consistently
use Arabic numerals (Chapter 10), regardless of how they
were treated in the publication being reviewed. Parts of
books may use either Arabic or Roman numerals (consistent
with the book reviewed; not spelled out): Part 1 or Part
I, not One.
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2) |
Do not reverse-italicize in book titles: Shakespeare
Survey: “King Lear” and Its Afterlife.
|
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3) |
“That” will be used with a restrictive
clause; “which” will be used with a nonrestrictive
clause and set off by commas:
| |
He stopped the first car that contained
two people.
He stopped the first car, which contained two people.
|
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OR |
| |
He proposed the only amendment that concerned
wage rates.
He proposed the only amendment, which concerned wage
rates. |
|
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4) |
“Since” will be changed to “because”
if and when its sense is ambiguous; for example:
| |
Since 1860 was the first year of operation,
it is not yet possible to judge the program’s
effectiveness. |
|
| |
5) |
“While” will
be used only as an adverb of time. In other contexts the word
“although” or “whereas” should be substituted. |
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6) |
The copy-editor will
rewrite to avoid overuse of sentences starting with conjunctions.
Where a sentence beginning with “But” does not truly
contradict what precedes it, or where an “And” simply
reiterates a linkage clear from the flow of the text, the
conjunction can simply be deleted. Where the sense of the
conjunction must be maintained, however, there are three ways
to resolve this problem: (a) Lowercase the conjunction and
change and the preceding period to a semicolon (often the
easiest). (b) If this would result in a sentence that is overly
long or convoluted, change the conjunction to an adverb (But
= However; And = Moreover, Furthermore, Also, Additionally;
Yet = Still, Nevertheless). (c) If all else fails, recast
the sentence to avoid the problem. Starting a sentence with
a conjunction is acceptable when it is immediately preceded
by a quotation. |
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7) |
The use of ‘an’
before a voiced ‘h’ is not now idiomatic in either
American or British English and should be avoided. Use ‘a’
instead: “a historical analysis”. |
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8) |
Words with the following prefixes [and
most others] will not be hyphenated:
| |
anti, co, extra, inter, intra, macro,
micro, non, pre, post, pro, pseudo, psycho, re, semi,
socio, sub, trans [exceptions: ex-, quasi-] |
|
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9) |
However, hyphens will be used where closing
up the word might lead to confusion in meaning:
| |
re-create, re-form, re-visioning |
|
| |
10) |
The hyphen after the prefix will be retained
when the second element begins with a capital or number:
| |
non-American, post-1950, (from journal)
anti-Catholic, -Dreyfusard, -Jewish,
-Semitic, -Soviet; arch-Nordic, Euro-American (but
Eurocentric); mid-1960s,
-Victorian; neo-Foucauldian (not -dean, nor -tian),
-Marxists; non-African,
-Anglophone, -British, -European, -German, -Greek,
-Nigerian, -Western;
pan-Slavic; post-1956, -Brechtian, -Thatcher, World
War II (en-dash, not hyphen);
pre- and post-Stonewall; pre-Commonwealth, World
War II (en-dash);
pro-French, -Republican; proto-Situationist; |
|
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11) |
Separate items in a series of three or
more with commas:
| |
red, white, and blue (rather than red,
white and blue) |
|
Numbers
| |
1) |
In general cardinal numbers <100 will
be spelled out in the text; numbers >100 will be given
in numerals:
| |
fifty-nine cents, six-month period,
265 years ago, 4,066 feet long |
but numerals will be used for numbers
<100 when they are being compared with numbers >100:
| |
Of 119 colleges, fewer than 15 were… |
and very large approximate figures given
in hundreds, thousands, or millions will be spelled out
or given in words and figures.
| |
forty thousand listeners,
fifteen-hundred-word essay, 4.5 million years, $3
billion (American billion) |
|
| |
2) |
Ordinal numbers and fractions will be
spelled out unless use of numerals makes the information
easier to grasp [esp. in math]:
| |
one-third of the students but 3-by-5
cards, the twentieth century, nineteenth-century morality |
|
| |
3) |
Numerals will be used for dates, time
of day, percentages, decimals (including money), ratios,
and measurements in which the unit of measure is abbreviated:
| |
196070; 8 June 1960 (not June 8, 1960);
the 1850s (not 1850’s) but the fifties [former
is preferable, but latter OK to avoid overrepetition];
7:50 a.m. but eight o’clock, half past nine; 7.98
inches; $7.98 but spell out money not given in decimals:
a two-dollar bet; a 5:1 ratio; a score of 5 to 3;
7 lb; 3 mm |
|
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4) |
Commas
will be used [except in p. nos.] in numbers of four digits
or more: 1,500 rather than 1500. |
| |
5) |
When page numbers or years are given as
a range of numbers, figures will be elided to one digit
where possible:
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196070, 19606 rather than 19601970,
196066
pp. 1434
pp. 143144 (or pp. 14344)
|
but to help pronunciation, the tens-digit
will not be elided in numbers in the teens:
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31415 rather than 314315 or 3145 |
Note: Dates in book titles and chapter
titles will not be elided: e.g., 18901895.
|
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6) |
Other examples from
journal: 35mm slides (no space); 9/11 (re attacks of 11 Sept.
2001)
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© 2002-05 The American Society for Theatre Research
All Rights Reserved
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