The Craft of Research

by Booth, Wayne C.; Colomb, Gregory G.; Williams, Joseph M.

• ISBN13: 9780226065847
• ISBN10: 0226065847
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

This manual offers practical advice on the fundamentals of research to college and university students in all fields of study. The Craft of Research teaches much more than the mechanics of fact gathering: it explains how to approach a research project as an analytical process. The authors chart every stage of research, from finding a topic and generating research questions about it to marshalling evidence, constructing arguments, and writing everything up in a final report that is a model of authority. Their advice is designed for use by both beginners and seasoned practitioners, and for projects from class papers to dissertations. This book is organized into four parts. Part One is a spirited introduction to the distinctive nature, values, and protocols of research. Part Two demystifies the art of discovering a topic. It outlines a wide range of sources, among them personal interests and passions. Parts Three and Four cover the essentials of argument--how to make a claim and support it--and ways to outline, draft, revise, rewrite, and polish the final report. Part Three is a short course in the logic, structure, uses, and common pitfalls of argumentation. The writing chapters in Part Four show how to present verbal and visual information effectively and how to shape sentences and paragraphs that communicate with power and precision. "A well-constructed, articulate reminder of how important fundamental questions of style and approach, such as clarity and precision, are to all research."--Times Literary Supplement

Author Biography

Wayne C. Booth is the George Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Gregory G. Colomb is professor of English language and literature at the University of Virginia Joseph M. Williams is professor emeritus in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Research, Researchers, and Readers	p. 1
Prologue: Starting a Research Project	p. 3
Thinking in Print: The Uses of Research, Public and Private	p. 9
What Is Research?	p. 10
Why Write It Up?	p. 12
Why a Formal Report?	p. 13
Conclusion	p. 15
Connecting with Your Reader: (Re)Creating Your Self and Your Audience	p. 17
Creating Roles for Writers and Readers	p. 17
Creating a Relationship with Your Reader: Your Role	p. 19
Creating the Other Half of the Relationship: The Reader's Role	p. 22
Writing in Groups	p. 26
Managing the Unavoidable Problem of Inexperience	p. 30
Quick Tip: A Checklist for Understanding Your Readers	p. 32
Asking Questions, Finding Answers	p. 35
Prologue: Planning Your Project	p. 37
From Topics to Questions	p. 40
From an Interest to a Topic	p. 41
From a Broad Topic to a Focused One	p. 43
From a Focused Topic to Questions	p. 45
From a Merely Interesting Question to Its Wider Significance	p. 49
Quick Tip: Finding Topics	p. 53
From Questions to Problems	p. 56
Problems, Problems, Problems	p. 57
The Common Structure of Problems	p. 60
Finding a Good Research Problem	p. 68
Summary: The Problem of the Problem	p. 70
Quick Tip: Disagreeing with Your Sources	p. 72
From Problems to Sources	p. 75
Screening Sources for Reliability	p. 76
Locating Printed and Recorded Sources	p. 79
Finding Sources on the Internet	p. 83
Gathering Data Directly from People	p. 85
Bibliographic Trails	p. 88
What You Find	p. 88
Using Sources	p. 90
Three Uses for Sources	p. 91
Reading Generously but Critically	p. 95
Preserving What You Find	p. 96
Getting Help	p. 104
Quick Tip: Speedy Reading	p. 106
Making a Claim and Supporting it	p. 109
Prologue: Pulling Together Your Argument	p. 111
Making Good Arguments: An Overview	p. 114
Argument and Conversation	p. 114
Basing Claims on Reasons	p. 116
Basing Reasons on Evidence	p. 117
Acknowledging and Responding to Alternatives	p. 118
Warranting the Relevance of Reasons	p. 119
Building Complex Arguments Out of Simple Ones	p. 121
Arguments and Your Ethos	p. 122
Quick Tip: Designing Arguments Not for Yourself but for Your Readers: Two Common Pitfalls	p. 124
Claims	p. 127
What Kind of Claim?	p. 127
Evaluating Your Claim	p. 129
Quick Tip: Qualifying Claims to Enhance Your Credibility	p. 135
Reasons and Evidence	p. 138
Using Reasons to Plan Your Argument	p. 138
The Slippery Distinction between Reasons and Evidence	p. 140
Evidence vs. Reports of Evidence	p. 142
Selecting the Right Form for Reporting Evidence	p. 144
Reliable Evidence	p. 145
Quick Tip: Showing the Relevance of Evidence	p. 149
Acknowledgments and Responses	p. 151
Questioning Your Argument	p. 152
Finding Alternatives to Your Argument	p. 154
Deciding What to Acknowledge	p. 157
Responses as Subordinate Arguments	p. 159
Quick Tip: The Vocabulary of Acknowledgment and Response	p. 161
Warrants	p. 165
How Warrants Work	p. 166
What Warrants Look Like	p. 168
Knowing When to State a Warrant	p. 168
Testing Your Warrants	p. 170
Challenging the Warrants of Others	p. 177
Quick Tip: Some Strategies for Challenging Warrants	p. 179
Preparing to Draft, Drafting, and Revising	p. 183
Prologue: Planning Again	p. 185
Quick Tip: Outlining	p. 187
Planning and Drafting	p. 189
Preliminaries to Drafting	p. 189
Planning: Four Traps to Avoid	p. 191
A Plan for Drafting	p. 193
The Pitfall to Avoid at All Costs: Plagiarism	p. 201
The Next Step	p. 204
Quick Tip: Using Quotation and Paraphrase	p. 205
Revising Your Organization and Argument	p. 208
Thinking Like a Reader	p. 209
Analyzing and Revising Your Overall Organization	p. 209
Revising Your Argument	p. 216
The Last Step	p. 218
Quick Tip: Titles and Abstracts	p. 219
Introductions and Conclusions	p. 222
The Three Elements of an Introduction	p. 222
Establishing Common Ground	p. 225
Stating Your Problem	p. 228
Stating Your Response	p. 232
Fast or Slow?	p. 234
Organizing the Whole Introduction	p. 235
Conclusions	p. 236
Quick Tip: Opening and Closing Words	p. 238
Communicating Evidence Visually	p. 241
Visual or Verbal?	p. 244
Tables vs. Figures	p. 244
Constructing Tables	p. 245
Constructing Figures	p. 248
Visual Communication and Ethics	p. 260
Using Graphics as an Aid to Thinking	p. 261
Revising Style: Telling Your Story Clearly	p. 263
Judging Style	p. 263
A First Principle: Stories and Grammar	p. 265
A Second Principle: Old Before New	p. 274
Choosing between Active and Passive	p. 275
A Final Principle: Complexity Last	p. 277
Spit and Polish	p. 280
Quick Tip: The Quickest Revision	p. 281
Some Last Considerations	p. 283
The Ethics of Research	p. 285
A Postscript for Teachers	p. 289
An Appendix on Finding Sources	p. 297
General Sources	p. 298
Special Sources	p. 299
A Note on Some of Our Sources	p. 317
Index	p. 325
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