The craft of research
Book - 2008
This book is a resource for researchers at every level, from first-year undergraduates to research reporters at corporations and government offices. Seasoned researchers and educators, the authors present an updated third edition of their classic handbook which explains how to build an argument that motivates readers to accept a claim; how to anticipate the reservations of readers and to respond to them appropriately; and how to create introductions and conclusions that answer that most demanding question, "So what?". It includes an expanded discussion of the essential early stages of a research task: planning and drafting a paper. The authors have revised and fully updated their section on electronic research, emphasizing the nee...d to distinguish between trustworthy sources (such as those found in libraries) and less reliable sources found with a quick Web search. A chapter on warrants has also been thoroughly reviewed to make this difficult subject easier for researchers. Throughout, the authors have preserved the amiable tone, the reliable voice, and the sense of directness that have made this book indispensable for anyone undertaking a research project.
Saved in:
- Subjects
- Published
-
Chicago :
University of Chicago Press
2008.
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Other Authors
- ,
- Edition
- 3rd ed
- Physical Description
- xvii, 317 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
- Production Credits
- Research, researchers, and readers -- Prologue: Becoming a researcher -- Thinking in print: Uses of research, public and private -- Connecting with your reader: (Re- )creating yourself and your audience -- Asking questions, finding answers -- Prologue: Planning your project - an overview -- From topics to questions -- From questions to a problem -- From problems to sources -- Engaging sources -- Making a claim and supporting it -- Prologue: Assembling a research argument -- Making good arguments: Overview -- Making claims -- Assembling reasons and evidence -- Acknowledgments and responses -- Warrants -- Planning, drafting, and revising -- Prologue: Planning again -- Planning -- Drafting your report -- Revising your organization and argument -- Communicating evidence visually -- Introductions and conclusions-- Revising style: Telling your story clearly -- Some last considerations.
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN
- 9780226065656
9780226065663
- 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 Report?
- 1.4. Writing Is Thinking
- 2. Connecting with Your Reader: (Re)Creating Yourself and Your Readers
- 2.1. Creating Roles for Yourself and Your Readers
- 2.2. UnderstandingYour Role
- 2.3. Imagining Your Reader's 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. From a Question to Its Significance
- Quick Tip: Finding Topics
- 4. From Questions to a Problem
- 4.1. Distinguishing Practical and 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: Disagreeing with Your Sources
- 5. From Problems to Sources
- 5.1. Knowing How to Use Three Kinds of Sources
- 5.2. Locating Sources through a Library
- 5.3. Locating Sources on the Internet
- 5.4. Evaluting Sources for Relevance and Reliability
- 5.5. Following Bibliographic Trails
- 5.6. Looking beyond Predictable Sources
- 5.7. Using People as Primary Sources
- Quick Tip: The Ethics of Using People as Sources of Data
- 6. Engaging Sources
- 6.1. Knowing What Kind of Evidence to Look For
- 6.2. Read Complete Bibliographical Data
- 6.3. Engaging Sources Actively
- 6.4. Using Secondary Sources to Find a Problem
- 6.5. Using Secondary Sources to Plan Your Argument
- Quick Tip: Manage Moments of Normal Anxiety
- III. Making A Claim And Supporting It
- Prologue: Assembling A Reasearch 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. Warranting the Relevance of Your Reasons
- 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. Claims
- 8.1. Determining the Kind of Claim You Should Make
- 8.2. Evaluating Your Claim
- Quick Tip: Qualifying Claims to Enhance Your Credibility
- 9. 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 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
- Quick Tip: Three Predicatble 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 Whether a Warrant Is Reliable
- 11.5. Knowing When to State a Warrant
- 11.6. Challenging Others' Warrants
- Quick Tip: Two Kinds of Arguments
- IV. Planning, Drafting, And Revising
- Prologue: Planning Again
- Quick Tip: Outlining and Storyboarding
- 12. Planning
- 12.1. Avoid Three Common but Flawed Plans
- 12.2. Planning Your Report
- 13. Drafting Your Report
- 13.1. Draft in a Way That Feels Comfortable
- 13.2. Use Key Words to Keep Yourself on Track
- 13.3. Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize Appropriately
- 13.4. Integrating Direct Quotations into Your Text
- 13.5. Show Readers How Evidence Is Relevant
- 13.6. Guard against Inadvertent Plaigarism
- 13.7. The Social Importance of Citing Sources
- 13.8. Four Common Citation Styles
- 13.9. Work through Procrastination and Writer's Block
- Quick Tip: Indicating Citations in Your Text
- 14. Revising Your Organization and Argument
- 14.1. Thinking Like a Reader
- 14.2. Revising the Frame of Your Report
- 14.3. Revising Your Argument
- 14.4. Revising the Organization of Your Report
- 14.5. Check Your Paragraphs
- 14.6. Let Your Draft Cool, Then Paraphrase It
- Quick Tip: Abstracts
- 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 Guidlines for Tables, Bar Charts, and Line Graphs
- 15.5. Communicating Data Ethically
- 16. Introductions and Conclusions
- 16.1. The Common Structure of Introductions
- 16.2. Step 1: Establish Common Ground
- 16.3. Step 2: State Your Problem
- 16.4. Step 3: State Your Response
- 16.5. Setting the Right Place for Your Introduction
- 16.6. Writing Your Conclusion
- 16.7. Finding Your First Few Words
- 16.8. Finding Your Last Few Words
- 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 Active and Passive
- 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
- General Sources
- Index