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The Craft of Research, 2nd edition
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16 new or used available from CDN$ 7.89
Average customer review:
Product Description
Like its predecessor, this new edition reflects the way researchers actually work: in a complex circuit of thinking, writing, revising, and rethinking. It shows how each part of this process influences the others and how a successful research report is an orchestrated conversation between a researcher and a reader. Along with many other topics, The Craft of Research explains how to build an argument that motivates readers to accept a claim; how to anticipate the reservations of thoughtful yet critical readers and to respond to them appropriately; and how to create introductions and conclusions that answer that most demanding question, "So what?"
Celebrated by reviewers for its logic and clarity, this popular book retains its five-part structure. Part 1 provides an orientation to the research process and begins the discussion of what motivates researchers and their readers. Part 2 focuses on finding a topic, planning the project, and locating appropriate sources. This section is brought up to date with new information on the role of the Internet in research, including how to find and evaluate sources, avoid their misuse, and test their reliability.
Part 3 explains the art of making an argument and supporting it. The authors have extensively revised this section to present the structure of an argument in clearer and more accessible terms than in the first edition. New distinctions are made among reasons, evidence, and reports of evidence. The concepts of qualifications and rebuttals are recast as acknowledgment and response. Part 4 covers drafting and revising, and offers new information on the visual representation of data. Part 5 concludes the book with an updated discussion of the ethics of research, as well as an expanded bibliography that includes many electronic sources.
The new edition retains the accessibility, insights, and directness that have made The Craft of Research an indispensable guide for anyone doing research, from students in high school through advanced graduate study to businesspeople and government employees. The authors demonstrate convincingly that researching and reporting skills can be learned and used by all who undertake research projects.
New to this edition:
Extensive coverage of how to do research on the internet, including how to evaluate and test the reliability of sources
New information on the visual representation of data
Expanded bibliography with many electronic sources
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #102557 in Books
- Published on: 2003-04-14
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Amazon.com
Skillfully done, research can be the solid cornerstone of your term paper (or dissertation, essay, or article); inadequately executed, it can cause your whole project to crumble and fall. Yet essential as research is to the ultimate success of your work, performing it is not an innate talent. The precepts, steps, and skills of solid research are readily acquired if you spend some time with The Craft of Research before you start on your outlines and thesis statements. Written by three distinguished professors in 1995, published by the University of Chicago, and winner of the 1995-96 Critics' Choice Award, The Craft of Research teaches how to plan, carry out, and report on research for any field and at any level. Aimed at assisting student researchers, from raw beginners to accomplished graduate and professional students, the book shows how to choose a topic, plan and organize research, and how to draft and revise a report of findings such that a convincing solution is offered to a significant problem.
The Craft of Research is more than just another instruction manual getting you from topic to outline to notes to report. Recognizing that good research is rarely a simple, sequential procedure, but is instead a complex and intricate process, it discusses the subtle ways in which asking questions about your topic can influence how you draft your report, how a quality introduction can send you back to the library, and how the process of drafting can highlight flaws in your argument that need to be addressed. Clear and explicit, sophisticated and practical, The Craft of Research encourages high standards of scholarly achievement, and spells out the steps by which to get there. --Stephanie Gold
From the Inside Flap
Like its predecessor, this new edition reflects the way researchers actually work: in a complex circuit of thinking, writing, revising, and rethinking. It shows how each part of this process influences the others and how a successful research report is an orchestrated conversation between a researcher and a reader. Along with many other topics, The Craft of Research explains how to build an argument that motivates readers to accept a claim; how to anticipate the reservations of thoughtful yet critical readers and to respond to them appropriately; and how to create introductions and conclusions that answer that most demanding question, "So what?"
Celebrated by reviewers for its logic and clarity, this popular book retains its five-part structure. Part 1 provides an orientation to the research process and begins the discussion of what motivates researchers and their readers. Part 2 focuses on finding a topic, planning the project, and locating appropriate sources. This section is brought up to date with new information on the role of the Internet in research, including how to find and evaluate sources, avoid their misuse, and test their reliability.
Part 3 explains the art of making an argument and supporting it. The authors have extensively revised this section to present the structure of an argument in clearer and more accessible terms than in the first edition. New distinctions are made among reasons, evidence, and reports of evidence. The concepts of qualifications and rebuttals are recast as acknowledgment and response. Part 4 covers drafting and revising, and offers new information on the visual representation of data. Part 5 concludes the book with an updated discussion of the ethics of research, as well as an expanded bibliography that includes many electronic sources.
The new edition retains the accessibility, insights, and directness that have made The Craft of Research an indispensable guide for anyone doing research, from students in high school through advanced graduate study to businesspeople and government employees. The authors demonstrate convincingly that researching and reporting skills can be learned and used by all who undertake research projects.
New to this edition:
Extensive coverage of how to do research on the internet, including how to evaluate and test the reliability of sources
New information on the visual representation of data
Expanded bibliography with many electronic sources
About the Author
Gregory G. Colomb is a professor of the English language and literature at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Designs on Truth: The Poetics of the Augustan Mock-Epic.
Joseph M. Williams is a professor emeritus in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Together Colomb and Williams have written The Craft of Argument.
Customer Reviews
Simplistic
Great for the high school or intro for a prepatory course frosh year in college. Otherwise, past the intro and the elevator story, worthless.
Very good book for the right audience...
I picked up the book The Craft Of Research by Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams at the library awhile back, and I finished it over the course of this week. Not quite what I was expecting, but useful if you buy it for the right reason. I was looking for something more geared towards doing research for articles and such. This is geared towards the college student or professional researcher who has to produce research papers on a regular basis. It teaches you how to formulate your argument and properly research your material to make and prove your points. Probably very helpful if you have an actual project to do at the time you're reading it. Definitely a reference book you'd want to have on your shelf.
That's not to say that you couldn't gain some insight on article writing from this book. It's just, in my opinion, a bit too advanced for the type of writing I would do. But because it covers the target audience well, I can't complain.
Art Takes Many Forms
This is certainly so when it comes to "The Craft of Research" as this is a fundamental point to remember when one is learning how to prepare research which is above and beyond the mundane and forgettable.
"The Craft of Research" is told from the insiders perspective and ought to be carried on one's person to reflect and review in those quiet moments that are more and more widely spaced these days.
Of course the business of finding the raw answers in short order is sometime key and I've found The Practical Pundit to be a quick solution to gathering my material prior to sitting down to order and write.
http://www.practicalpundit.com
