Writing for Social Scientists

by Becker, Howard Saul

• ISBN13: 9780226041322
• ISBN10: 0226041328
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Students and researchers all write under pressure, and those pressuresmost lamentably, the desire to impress your audience rather than to communicate with themoften lead to pretentious prose, academic posturing, and, not infrequently, writer's block. Sociologist Howard S. Becker has writtentheclassic book on how to conquer these pressures and simply write. First published nearly twenty years ago,Writing for Social Scientistshas become a lifesaver for writers in all fields, from beginning students to published authors. Becker's message is clear: in order to learn how to write, take a deep breath and then begin writing. Revise. Repeat. It is not always an easy process, as Becker wryly relates. Decades of teaching, researching, and writing have given him plenty of material, and Becker neatly exposes the foibles of academia and its "publish or perish" atmosphere. Wordiness, the passive voice, inserting a "the way in which" when a simple "how" will doall these mechanisms are a part of the social structure of academic writing. By shrugging off such impedimentsor at the very least, putting them aside for a few hourswe can reform our work habits and start writing lucidly without worrying about grades, peer approval, or the "literature." In this new edition, Becker takes account of major changes in the computer tools available to writers today, and also substantially expands his analysis of how academic institutions create problems for them. As competition in academia grows increasingly heated,Writing for Social Scientistswill provide solace to a new generation of frazzled, would-be writers.

Author Biography

Howard S. Becker lives and works in San Francisco. He is the author of several books, including Outsiders, Tricks of the Trade, and Telling About Society. 
 

 

 

 

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

1986 Preface

Freshman English for Graduate Students

Persona and Authority

One Right Way

Editing by Ear

Learning to Write as a Professional

Risk, by Pamela Richards

Getting It out the Door

Terrorized by the Literature

Writing with Computers

A Final Word

References

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.