Describe the major elements of the research process

Module 1: Introduction to SS3A, Research and Technology, Research on Technology, & Research Questions
Describe the major elements of the research process
Ideas ? Theory ? Design ? Data Collection ? Analysis ? Dissemination
Provide a working definition of social science research that you can build on throughout the quarter
A set of orderly procedures intended to help us acquire knowledge about many facets of society and human nature, or
who we are
Provide a working definition of technology that you can build on throughout the quarter
Constructing Shared Definitions, Building Typologies , Drawing Boundaries
Identify common ways in which technology and the research process can intersect with each other
(technologies, Computing, Research and Digital) ? (Type #1) Change the way that ? Researchers
conducting research ? (Type #2)To study social impacts of ? (Type #3) To design more effective
State why learning to do research well requires that you also learn to write research well
“…we write not just to share our work, but to improve it before we do.” Booth et al. (2008:12)
*Write to Remember, Understand. Test Your Thinking
Contrast Problem Solving with Critical Thinking and give an example of each type of task
Problem-solving: finding correct solutions to well-defined problems
A Specific Plan (Roadmap)
Critical thinking: finding reasonable solutions to ill-defined problems
A Specific Problem (Research Question)
List common sources of research problems or questions
Two basic forms of questions that work well:
methodological question:
What impact has ________ had on the way in which research is conducted in my field?
General social science questions:
What impact has _________ had on __________?
Define the basic aspects of any effective research question and compare these to a research topic
Research Questions: Where do they come from?
Personal experience, Disciplinary Problems, Problems of society
Topics are not research questions
“A research question is literally a sentence that ends in a question mark and in which every word counts, one that points
in two directions—toward the theoretical framework that justifies the question and toward the empirical evidence
that will answer it.” (Alford 25)
Module 2: Notes and Attribution and their Role in the Broader Process of Research Report Writing
State the three common motivations for research and point out which one is most
common in academic research
Have I mastered good note-taking and do I always practice it?
Do my notes support the easy and correct identification of all sources?
Which technological developments are changing the ways we can or do take notes?
Discuss the role of note-taking in the research process generally
To organize To centralize To summarize To improve your understanding and aid in learning
2
To record your our own reactions NOT To record all the useful information we encounter
Contrast everyday notes with research notes and describe the standards for research
notes
Documentary Purposes & Creative Purposes
Name at least three apps or software that support digital note-taking and contrast their
key features
1.
Evernote
2.
Microsoft
3.
OneNote
Zotero and other BMS (attach notes)
Word Processors:
-MS Word-NotePad-Pages (Mac)html notes?Xml notes?
Explain what a digital object identifier (DOI) is and why it has become necessary in the
digital age
What is a DOI? ? Digital Object Identifier
Why does APA style now require DOIs? ? As a means of improving the ability of readers to follow your references
backwards
List the major benefits of Zotero and other BMS in terms of efficiency and reduced
work load
Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.
A personal research assistant.
Zotero is the only research tool that automatically senses content in your web browser, allowing you to add it to your
personal library with a single click. Whether you’re searching for a preprint on arXiv.org, a journal article from JSTOR, a
news story from the New York Times, or a book from your university library catalog, Zotero has you covered with
support for thousands of sites.
Explain what using Bibliographic Management Software can potentially do to prevent plagiarism
Bibliographic management software tools are essential for successful and quick studying.
-to maintain an overview of your references
-to collect your references and quotations fast and completely
-to edit, arrange and evaluate your bibliographic data, quotations and annotations in a
time-saving way, with full access all the time
-to create bibliographies and lists of references automatically
-to add sources correctly formatted to your paper or theses.
Module 3: General and Specific Search Tools and their Relationship to an Efficient Research Process
List the recommended order for skimming an academic research report for maximum
efficiency
When you skim a book or article, the general recommended order is:
1.
Title ? Abstract, TOC, or Index ? Introduction ? Conclusion ? Major Headings (actual reading of useful
sections) ? Bibliography
Define GUI and WYSIWYG and explain what these terms have to do with Word
Processing software
Graphic User Interface – Everything you’re doing in computer is gui except command prompts
What you see is what you get – Denoting the representation of text on screen in a form exactly corresponding to its
appearance on a printout
Define what a warrant is and give a simple example of an argument that needs a warrant
“…a general principle that justifies relating your particular reason to your particular claim.” (Booth et al. 20087: 114)
Four elements:
3
General principle (warrant) is true
Reason is true
Specific circumstance of is a plausible instance of the general circumstance
Specific consequence is a plausible instance of the general consequence
Must convince the reader of ALL FOUR
To reduce measurement error in social survey questions:
1. Choose appropriate question forms Make questions clear Avoid double-barreled questions Match
questions to respondent competency and ability Assure respondent willingness to answer Make questions
relevant Short items are best Avoid negative items Avoid biased items and terms
2. Name and describe the three major principles put forth in the Belmont Report
1.) Respect for Persons / Voluntary Participation
3.
Information
Comprehension
Voluntariness
“Informed Consent”
2.) Beneficence / “No harm to the participants”
4.
The nature and scope of benefits
The “systematic assessment of risks and benefits”
3.) Justice
5.
Selection of subjects
Distribution of burdens of research versus “rewards” of research
Module 6: Extra Writing Assistance, Luddite Day, and Technology Holiday
Describe what can happen when a research report fails to conform to the expectations of the reader regarding form
Stray far from form expectations of a research report, and readers won’t read it
Describe what can happen when a research report fails to conform to the expectations of the reader regarding content
Stray far from content expectations of a research report and you have little to say
Discuss one or more reasons why revision is essential to the drafting of a quality research report
A large percentage of the text of first drafts never makes it into the final drafts(Booth et al. Chapter 13)
Experienced writers plan to revise and reorganize quite a bit during drafting(Booth et al. Chapter 13)
Implication: The process of organizing and drafting is as much about discovery as it isabout finishing the job and these
good surprises may happen better with a plan
List the recommended order for drafting various sections of a typical research paper
-Write your working research question first
-Write your answer to this question (claim or hypothesis) next
-Write the body next
Make a separate page for each major reason, add evidence under these, note warrants
Try reversing the argument to see where you might be lacking evidence
Consider the weak points of your reasons and evidence – acknowledge these and respond
-Write the background next (now you know exactly what is needed and what is not)
-Write the discussion and conclusions next, since you now know what to emphasize
-Write the introduction last, since you now know exactly what you are introducing
-If required, write an abstract next – it’s find to copy & paste your own original words
-(Check to make sure that your title is as good as it can be and still reflects your purpose)
Define “Luddite”, the origins of the term, and explain the meaning of this term in the contemporary era
4
Technophobe – a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and
woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16)
Outline the general theory that links dopamine to “searching behavior” and connect this to internet addiction
Causes seeking behavior, “wanting”, Dopamine Loops (instant gratification), [More, more, more], Unpredictability is
key, pavlovian cues, 140 characters is more addictive,
Module 7: DataViz, Graphical Data Display and Summaries, and Standards for Evaluating Good Graphing
List the levels of measurement and describe their significance for data management and visualization
QUALITATIVE Levels of Measurement: NOMINAL = Named Categories ORDINAL = Ordered Categories
QUANTITATIVE Levels of Measurement: INTERVAL = Has a common “Unit of Measure” RATIO = Has a true
zero point, ratios built from scores are useful
Explain why the levels of measurement of variables need to be identified in order to practice effective data visualization
Describe the purpose of graphing data and the basic rules for good data visualization
Great way to summarize large amounts of info, Supports sense of statistical proportionality (what is worth
getting excited about), Rapidly and easily surmise trends and patterns, Detect errors and unusual cases more readily,
Communicate with non-statistical audiences
Define “DataVis” and explain what skills are required to excel in this field
State the general conditions under which a frequency table might be preferred over a full data visualization
Sentence: 3 or fewer data points; Table: 4-20; Graph: 20 or more
Describe and identify the basic options for graphically displaying each major type of variable by level of measurement
Learn the table, Decision Tree, “Stairs of Measurement”
Describe the general situations in which a pie chart is an appropriate graphing tool and considerations for its use
Appropriate Level of Measurement: Qualitative Nominal – Small # of categories Ordinal – Small # of categories
What it “does” shows percentages or proportions of the total by either Levels of a single variable or Groups
(Univariate) Pros: Simple presentation, easily understood by most Expresses any type of data proportionally (as a
share of 1 or 100%) Cons: Poor support for comparisons Limited Utility Best Practice: Comparing the magnitude
of a single part to the rest or the whole
Describe the general situations in which a bar chart is an appropriate graphing tool and considerations for its use
Appropriate Levels of Measurement: Qualitative Nominal Ordinal What it “does”: Shows raw counts,
percentages, or proportions for each Level of a variable (Univariate) OR Shows raw counts, percentages, or
proportions of one variable for each level of a second grouping variable (Bivariate) Pros: Readily supports comparison
over multiple data series Easily recognized and interpreted by most users Cons: Easily confused with histograms
Best Practice: Bivariate (Two-Variable) Relationships (Qualitative (grouping) X Quantitative or Qualitative)
Describe the general situations in which a histogram is an appropriate graphing tool and considerations for its use
Appropriate Levels of Measurement: Quantitative Interval Ratio What it “does”: Groups raw scores into numeric
categories “bins” and displays the raw count or proportion in each bin (Univariate) Pros: Supports comparison across
bins over entire range of a single variable Many applications in statistics Ideal for assessing general patterns in data
(distributions) Cons: Hard to assess exact (parametric) shapes of distributions (a common purpose) Hard to compare
more than one variable to another with a regular histogram Best Practice: Histograms are ideal for displaying the
distributions of raw data
Describe the general situations in which a line chart is an appropriate graphing tool and considerations for its use
Appropriate Levels of Measurement: Quantitative Interval Ratio What it “does” Groups raw scores into numeric
categories “bins” and displays the raw count or proportion in each bin as point (Univariate) Then connects each point
to the adjacent point(s) to indicate increase or decrease May be either Univariate or Bivariate, or in some cases even
multivariate Pros: Supports comparison across different levels of a single variable Supports comparison across the
same levels of different groups or variables Cons: Hard to use quantitatively Too many lines can quickly defeat the
5
Also great for the
purpose Best Use: Line Graphs ideal for displaying multiple overlapping distributions of raw data
classic “Time Series” with time arrayed along the X-axis
Describe the general situations in which a scatterplot is an appropriate graphing tool and considerations for its use
Appropriate Levels of Measurement: Quantitative Two Interval/Ratio Variables What it “does” Plots coordinate
pairs for two (or more) variables [X,Y] on a common grid (Bivariate) Pros: Easily Visualize Associations (when X
goes up/down, Y goes up/down) Easily Detect Linear/Curvilinear relationships Great for pattern recognition
Great for coding error detection as well Cons: Not great for large numbers of points Density is hard for people to
judge Best Practice: Showing the association (or lack thereof) between two quantitative variables
Select the proper type of graph for a variable, interpret it, and explain the major parts of each type of graph
Explain why “pictographs” are often misleading
Scaling (Visual size = importance!)
Evaluate the data visualizations of others using the basic rules of good graphing and articulate what makes a particular
graph potentially suspect or inaccurate
Outright deception (or error), Missing axes, Pictographs, Truncated axes, Lack of context, Bubble charts
Explain the basic elements of the “Trifecta checkup” developed by Kaiser Fung and apply this to evaluate a graph
Is the question being asked clear and important? Do the data answer or address the question? Does the graphic
match the question and the data?
Contrast a “scientific data visualization” or data summary tables with one that has been created for other purposed,
noting one or more major differences in expectation between these two broad categories
Discuss specific search queries and strategies that are useful in locating data visualizations or information about them
Describe the role that data visualizations play in communicating the findings of scientific research
Explain how to include a data visualization in an APA formatted paper and describe any differences in how it is cited
Explain the benefits and the hazards of chart and data visualization production becoming so easy for anyone to do with
contemporary graphics and data analysis tools
Module 8: Storing and Working with Data, Managing Errors, and the Importance of Reproducibility
State the definition of “secondary data analysis” and explain why it is useful
The RE-analysis of data collected by another person/agency to answer new questions
Define “metadata” and explain how this differs from data (in a social science research context)
“Data about data” in a rectangular dataset
Define “codebook” and list forms of metadata that are commonly included in a codebook
What the dataset is What it records information about How that information is recorded How we can use that
dataset to answer our questions
Discuss the relationship between codebooks and datasets, and the idea of metadata
Explain the role of codebooks and other documentation when attempting to assess the quality of a particular dataset
List one or more problems that can result from poor data documentation
Misunderstanding the Data ? Errors, Deception, Distortions…
Import data into Microsoft Excel from any of several common formats (.txt, .csv, .xls, .xlsx, etc.)
Explain the basic steps that are required to create a simple chart using Microsoft Excel
Define “delimiter” and explain how delimiters are used to store data
“Packing up the data” A delimiter has one job – to separate each entry in a dataset from the one before it and after it
Know what makes a good delimiter and detect instances of selecting an inappropriate character to use as a delimiter
NEVER choose a character to serve as a delimiter that does or might also appear as any part of the actual data. Bad
Example: Do not choose a comma (,) if your data include text strings that might include commas, such as “Asked
6
multiple times, no response” Bad Example: Do not choose an ampersand (@) if your data include text strings that
might include email addresses ([email protected])
Demonstrate familiarity with Microsoft Excel features that are specifically very helpful for data analysis and
summarization
List the prominent features of a standard rectangular dataset
Row- one observation, Column- one variable, Cell- one score. Lack almost all metadata
Name one or more data storage formats that includes
a.) only raw data- .CSV .XLS .TXT .XLSX .TSV .DBF
b.) only metadata- Codebook & .XML Metadata
c.) both- .SAV
State which raw data format is most common and widespread across the internet
. CSV . TSV . TXT .PRN .DSV – Delimeters is what they all have in common
Discuss three or more ways in which Excel could be used in the context of a formal research effort
Excel is an excellent tool to use when you are first starting out
Can be used as a “sandbox” for experimenting with things Great tool with low overhead and short learning
curve Fine for simple analyses
Excel is also a great intermediate tool in preparing data for another program
Excel is not such a great tool to use when you are doing formal scientific analyses
And, on the flipside, if you see someone using Excel, be cautious Excel leaves very little paper trail or
documentation!
Contrast the process of creating simple data visualizations using Excel vs. SPSS noting the advantages and disadvantages
of each
Excel (fairly skilled user – me!)-Opening Dataset (~1 minute)-1 Var Summary Table (~4 min) Have to load Analysis
toolpak or use fairly longExcel Functions Have to manually enter labelsCreating Bar Chart (~1 minute)-Edit and add
titles (~1 min)-Repeat with 2nd var (~4 min)
SPSS (fairly skilled user – me!)-Opening Dataset (~1 minute)-Setting Variable Att’s (~3 min)
Manually entering labels-Running Bar Chart (~1minute)Repeat with 2nd var (~30 sec)
Module 9: Automating Paper Trails, Basic Research Programming, and Statistical Analysis Software
List the three major windows in SPSS, the two views in the Data window, and how each is used in the course of data
analysis
1.
Data View
2.
Variable View
Data Editor-Syntax Editor-Output View
Explain the function of each major heading in the SPSS variable view window
Name type width decimals label values missing columns align measure role
Discuss the way that SPSS handles “missing” data
Gets put as 9.99
Discuss how to get data into SPSS, how to change variable attributes or metadata
Import ? Change in Variable View ? Metadata (data view)
The Craft of Research
2
Digital Paper
Andrew Abbott
Tricks of the Trade
Howard S. Becker
Writing for Social Scientists
Howard S. Becker
What Editors Want
Philippa J. Benson and Susan C. Silver
The Craft of Translation
John Biguenet and Rainer Schulte, editors
The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation
Bryan A. Garner
Legal Writing in Plain English
Bryan A. Garner
From Dissertation to Book
William Germano
Getting It Published
William Germano
From Notes to Narrative
Kristen Ghodsee
Writing Science in Plain English
Anne E. Greene
Cite Right
Charles Lipson
How to Write a BA Thesis
Charles Lipson
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Multivariate Analysis
Jane E. Miller
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers
Jane E. Miller
The Subversive Copy Editor
Carol Fisher Saller
The Writer’s Diet
Helen Sword
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
Kate L. Turabian
Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers
Kate L. Turabian
3
The Craft of Research
Fourth Edition
Wayne C. Booth
Gregory G. Colomb
Joseph M. Williams
Joseph Bizup
William T. FitzGerald
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago & London
4
Wayne C. Booth (1921–2005) was the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in English
Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. His books included The Rhetoric of Fiction and For the
Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
Gregory G. Colomb (1951–2011) was professor of English at the University of Virginia and the author of
Designs on Truth: The Poetics of the Augustan Mock-Epic.
Joseph M. Williams (1933–2008) was professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the
University of Chicago and the author of Style: Toward Clarity and Grace.
Joseph Bizup is associate professor in the Department of English at Boston University as well as assistant
dean and director of the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program. He is the author of Manufacturing
Culture: Vindications of Early Victorian Industry.
William T. FitzGerald is associate professor in the Department of English at Rutgers University. He is the
author of Spiritual Modalities: Prayer as Rhetoric and Performance.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1995, 2003, 2008, 2016 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2016.
Printed in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16
12345
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-23956-9 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-23973-6 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-23987-3 (e-book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226239873.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Booth, Wayne C., author. | Colomb, Gregory G., author. | Williams, Joseph M., author. | Bizup, Joseph,
1966– author. | FitzGerald, William T., author.
Title: The craft of research / Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, William
T. FitzGerald.
Other titles: Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing.
Description: Fourth edition. | Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2016. | Series: Chicago guides to writing,
editing, and publishing | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016000143 | ISBN 9780226239569 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226239736 (pbk.: alk.
paper) | ISBN 9780226239873 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Research—Methodology. | Technical writing.
Classification: LCC Q180.55.M4 B66 2016 | DDC 001.4/2—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000143
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
5
Contents
Preface: The Aims of This Edition
Our Debts
I Research, Researchers, and Readers
Prologue: Becoming a Researcher
1 Thinking in Print: The Uses of Research, Public and Private
1.1 What Is Research?
1.2 Why Write It Up?
1.3 Why a Formal Paper?
1.4 Writing Is Thinking
2 Connecting with Your Reader: Creating a Role for Yourself and Your Readers
2.1 Conversing with Your Readers
2.2 Understanding Your Role
2.3 Imagining Your Readers’ Role
? Quick Tip: A Checklist for Understanding Your Readers
II Asking Questions, Finding Answers
Prologue: Planning Your Project—An Overview
? Quick Tip: Creating a Writing Group
3 From Topics to Questions
3.1 From an Interest to a Topic
3.2 From a Broad Topic to a Focused One
3.3 From a Focused Topic to Questions
3.4 The Most Significant Question: So What?
? Quick Tip: Finding Topics
4 From Questions to a Problem
4.1 Understanding Research Problems
4.2 Understanding the Common Structure of Problems
4.3 Finding a Good Research Problem
4.4 Learning to Work with Problems
? Quick Tip: Manage the Unavoidable Problem of Inexperience
5 From Problems to Sources
5.1 Three Kinds of Sources and Their Uses
5.2 Navigating the Twenty-First-Century Library
5.3 Locating Sources on the Internet
6
5.4 Evaluating Sources for Relevance and Reliability
5.5 Looking Beyond Predictable Sources
5.6 Using People to Further Your Research
? Quick Tip: The Ethics of Using People as Sources of Data
6 Engaging Sources
6.1 Recording Complete Bibliographical Information
6.2 Engaging Sources Actively
6.3 Reading for a Problem
6.4 Reading for Arguments
6.5 Reading for Data and Support
6.6 Taking Notes
6.7 Annotating Your Sources
? Quick Tip: Manage Moments of Normal Anxiety
III Making an Argument
Prologue: Assembling a Research Argument
7 Making Good Arguments: An Overview
7.1 Argument as a Conversation with Readers
7.2 Supporting Your Claim
7.3 Acknowledging and Responding to Anticipated Questions and Objections
7.4 Connecting Claims and Reasons with Warrants
7.5 Building a Complex Argument Out of Simple Ones
7.6 Creating an Ethos by Thickening Your Argument
? Quick Tip: A Common Mistake—Falling Back on What You Know
8 Making Claims
8.1 Determining the Kind of Claim You Should Make
8.2 Evaluating Your Claim
8.3 Qualifying Claims to Enhance Your Credibility
9 Assembling Reasons and Evidence
9.1 Using Reasons to Plan Your Argument
9.2 Distinguishing Evidence from Reasons
9.3 Distinguishing Evidence from Reports of It
9.4 Evaluating Your Evidence
10 Acknowledgments and Responses
10.1 Questioning Your Argument as Your Readers Will
10.2 Imagining Alternatives to Your Argument
10.3 Deciding What to Acknowledge
10.4 Framing Your Responses as Subordinate Arguments
10.5 The Vocabulary of Acknowledgment and Response
7
? Quick Tip: Three Predictable Disagreements
11 Warrants
11.1 Warrants in Everyday Reasoning
11.2 Warrants in Academic Arguments
11.3 Understanding the Logic of Warrants
11.4 Testing Warrants
11.5 Knowing When to State a Warrant
11.6 Using Warrants to Test Your Argument
11.7 Challenging Others’ Warrants
? Quick Tip: Reasons, Evidence, and Warrants
IV Writing Your Argument
Prologue: Planning Again
12 Planning and Drafting
12.1 Planning Your Paper
12.2 Avoiding Three Common but Flawed Plans
12.3 Turning Your Plan into a Draft
? Quick Tip: Work Through Procrastination and Writer’s Block
13 Organizing Your Argument
13.1 Thinking Like a Reader
13.2 Revising Your Frame
13.3 Revising Your Argument
13.4 Revising the Organization of Your Paper
13.5 Checking Your Paragraphs
13.6 Letting Your Draft Cool, Then Paraphrasing It
? Quick Tip: Abstracts
14 Incorporating Sources
14.1 Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing Appropriately
14.2 Integrating Direct Quotations into Your Text
14.3 Showing Readers How Evidence Is Relevant
14.4 The Social Importance of Citing Sources
14.5 Four Common Citation Styles
14.6 Guarding Against Inadvertent Plagiarism
? Quick Tip: Indicating Citations in Your Paper
15 Communicating Evidence Visually
15.1 Choosing Visual or Verbal Representations
15.2 Choosing the Most Effective Graphic
15.3 Designing Tables, Charts, and Graphs
15.4 Specific Guidelines for Tables, Bar Charts, and Line Graphs
8
15.5 Communicating Data Ethically
16 Introductions and Conclusions
16.1 The Common Structure of Introductions
16.2 Step 1: Establishing a Context
16.3 Step 2: Stating Your Problem
16.4 Step 3: Stating Your Response
16.5 Setting the Right Pace
16.6 Organizing the Whole Introduction
16.7 Finding Your First Few Words
16.8 Writing Your Conclusion
? Quick Tip: Titles
17 Revising Style: Telling Your Story Clearly
17.1 Judging Style
17.2 The First Two Principles of Clear Writing
17.3 A Third Principle: Old Before New
17.4 Choosing between the Active and Passive Voice
17.5 A Final Principle: Complexity Last
17.6 Spit and Polish
? Quick Tip: The Quickest Revision Strategy
V Some Last Considerations
The Ethics of Research
A Postscript for Teachers
Appendix: Bibliographical Resources
Index
9
Preface
The Aims of This Edition
This fourth edition of The Craft of Research is the first to appear since the deaths
of the book’s three original authors, Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and
Joseph M. Williams. In undertaking this revision, we—Joseph Bizup and William
T. FitzGerald—faced the pleasurable and challenging task of reworking a book we
have both long admired. Our goal has been to update and refine it without
appropriating it from its original authors.
The fourth edition has the same main aim as the first three: to meet the needs of
all researchers, not just first-year undergraduates and advanced graduate students,
but even those in business and government who do and report research on any
topic, academic, political, or commercial. The book was written to
• guide you through the complexities of turning a topic or question into a research problem whose
significance matches the effort that you put into solving it;
• help you organize and draft a report that justifies the effort;
• show you how to read your report as your readers will so that you can revise it into one that they
will read with the understanding and respect it deserves.
Other handbooks touch on these matters, but this one is different. Most current
guides acknowledge that researchers rarely move in a straight line from finding a
topic to stating a thesis to filling in note cards to drafting and revision. Experienced
researchers loop back and forth, move forward a step or two before going back in
order to move ahead again, change directions, all the while anticipating stages not
yet begun. But so far as we know, no other guide tries to explain how each part of
the process influences all the others—how developing a project prepares the
researcher for drafting, how drafting can reveal problems in an argument, how
writing an introduction can prompt you to do more research.
In particular, the book tries to be explicit about matters that other guides treat as
a mysterious creative process beyond analysis and explanation, including
• how to turn a vague interest into a problem readers think is worth posing and solving;
• how to build an argument that motivates readers to take your claim seriously;
• how to anticipate the reservations of thoughtful but critical readers and then respond appropriately;
• how to create an introduction and conclusion answering that toughest of questions from readers, So
what?;
• how to read your own writing as readers will, and thereby know when and how to revise it.
Central in every chapter is the advice to side with your readers, to imagine how
they will judge what you have written.
The book addresses the formal elements common to most genres of researchbased writing not just because writers need to understand their superficial shape
but also because they help writers think. These genres—the research paper, the
research report, the white paper, and many others—are not empty patterns or forms:
10
they also embody and enable specific ways of working and arguing; they help us all
to develop and refine our projects, test our work, and even discover new lines of
thought. How we write thus affects how we argue and research, and vice versa. In
this sense, to learn the genres of one’s field is to learn the field itself.
The book is informed by another conviction as well: that the skills of research
and research-based writing are not just for the elite but can be learned by everyone.
Some aspects of advanced research can be learned only in the context of a specific
community of researchers, but even if you don’t yet belong to one, you can still
create something like it on your own. Our “Postscript for Teachers” suggests ways
you (and your teachers) can do that.
11
What This Edition Does Not Address
Like the previous editions of The Craft of Research, this fourth edition treats
research generally. It does not discuss how to incorporate narratives, “thick
descriptions,” or audiovisual forms of evidence into your arguments. They are
important topics, but too large for us to do justice to them here. Nor does this
edition cover research techniques that are specific to particular fields. Likewise,
while it discusses the principles that should guide online research, it does not
attempt to describe the vast array of specialized search tools and databases now
available online and through the library. Our bibliography suggests a number of
sources for guidance in those areas.
12
What’s New in This Edition
In preparing this fourth edition, we have kept in mind the positive reception of
earlier editions and the wide audience they attracted, an audience that r