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Craft of Research 3e Paperback – 25 April 2008
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- ISBN-100226065669
- ISBN-13978-0226065663
- Edition3rd
- PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
- Publication date25 April 2008
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions2.54 x 13.97 x 21.59 cm
- Print length306 pages
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- Publisher : University of Chicago Press; 3rd edition (25 April 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 306 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0226065669
- ISBN-13 : 978-0226065663
- Dimensions : 2.54 x 13.97 x 21.59 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,248,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 155 in Encyclopaedia Textbooks
- 271 in Technical Thinking & Writing
- 442 in Technical Writing Reference (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
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.
Wayne C. Booth is the George Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. His many books include The Rhetoric of Fiction and For the Love of It: Amateuring and its Rivals, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
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The table of contents, outlined below, shows that the authors cover more than putting fingers to keyboard. Introductory chapters discuss the perspective and information needs of readers and how to connect with them. The authors address development of one's own authentic authorial "voice"--a topic often neglected in books about research writing. The next four chapters teach us how to conceptualize a research question, then find relevant and credible sources of information to answer it. The third edition contains a needed revision of the authors' earlier avoidant stance on the credibility of web-based information, containing good guidance for weeding flakey from factual online sources.
Chapter 7, "Making Good Arguments: An Overview," is the keystone chapter and a relatively quick read at eleven pages. It's where to focus when deciding whether to read the rest of the book. The authors define their working vocabulary of arguments, reasons, evidence, claims and warrants. In this and the following four chapters they show us how to use these concepts to present our points and how to acknowledge and respond to positions with which we disagree. They demonstrate how to do this with integrity as well as skill.
The final six chapters address the actual writing of a research report. Much of the advice on planning, drafting and revising is standard and consistent with other writing guides. Some, such as advice on graphical presentation of data, is an overview of information covered more thoroughly in other books (e.g., Tufte's Envisioning Information ). But there is also a great deal of guidance on revising and fine-tuning arguments that is unique to these authors and their framework of written arguments. The closing chapter on style will help writers create clear and understandable structure while following their own authorial style. Recognizing they have presented only an introductory measure of what good writers need to know, the authors close with a comprehensive bibliography of readings, both online and in print.
This book, thoughtfully read and put into practice, is as good as a course in professional writing. Read it, underline in it, bend back the page corners, and keep it nearby when you write your next report.
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Brief Table of Contents
I. Research, Researchers and Readers
- 1. Thinking in Print: The uses of Research, Public and Private
- 2. Connecting with Your Reader: (Re-)Creating Yourself
II. Asking Questions, Finding Answers
- 3. From Topics to Questions
- 4. From Questions to a Problem
- 5. From Problems to Sources
- 6. Engaging Sources
III. Making a Claim and Supporting It
- 7. Making Good Arguments: An Overview
- 8. Making Claims
- 9. Assembling Reasons and Evidence
- 10. Acknowledgements and Responses
- 11. Warrants
IV. Planning, Drafting and Revising
- 12. Planning
- 13. Drafting Your Report
- 14. Revising Your Organization and Argument
- 15. Communicating Evidence Visually
- 16. Introductions and Conclusions
- 17. Revising Style: Telling Your Story Clearly
V. Some Last Considerations
The writing is light and humorous. By this third edition, Booth is well dead and Williams followed shortly after the draft was completed. We're talking old men. But for all that, the tone is engaging and the writers mention feedback from students - to which they seem to have responded. There's credit due for that.
This is a competent, well written guide to doing research projects (and I have read others that compare less favourably); the writers do know their target audience and do address the likely reluctance on the part of that audience. It is nice to see a useful and pragmatic guide to research that does not assume that readers aspire for a career in research. I am pleased to have read this book and am finding it useful in developing my own masters project.
Top reviews from other countries
Me ha ayudado mucho a entender el arte de la investigación.
An excellent chapter on warrants.
Booth et al are right up there with Dr. J.. Creswell.
A must for a Researcher.in any subject. to remind you of the essentials of thorough research wring