Tricks of the Trade : How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Rating:
Summary: An invitation to sit in on a graduate seminar in methodology
Review: Howard S. Becker's Tricks of the Trade is an invitation to sit in on a graduate seminar in methodology with an experienced social science researcher. The tone is conversational and thought-provoking, often humorous. Through a quirky set of examples that includes embezzlement, theatre casting, transvestitism, forestry, and opiate addiction, Becker describes common methodological problems in research and some "tricks" that might be helpful in unlocking them. Although the word "tricks" in the title might put some readers off, the author explains that he has found these to be useful tools in "tam[ing] theory...[by providing] ways of thinking that help researchers faced with concrete research problems make some progress" (p. 4). These tricks are not shortcuts to the solution of theoretical problems; in fact, Becker points out that they may cause more, rather than less, work because they "suggest ways of interfering with the comfortable thought routines academic life promotes and supports" (p. 6).

Becker's very readable book will probably be most interesting to someone who has some research experience and has grappled with the methodological and theoretical problems it addresses. For that reason, it would be less useful as an introductory methodology textbook than it would for a beginning researcher, but reading Tricks of the Trade will benefit researchers of any experience level. The usefulness of a particular trick to a given researcher will depend on the researcher's interests and experiences, but this may well be one of those books that yields fresh insights each time it is read. The main strength of Tricks of the Trade is the glimpse it provides into the thinking of an experienced and respected researcher.

Rating:
Summary: Addresses the research process in an easy to understand way.
Review: I am posed on the brink of my proposal and have been reading similar books about writing and research. This one is by far one of the best. Howard Becker is having a conversation with the reader about doing research in the social sciences. I find the concepts easy to follow and feel that his ideas have a universal applicability. I enjoy Dr. Becker's writing style, which is light on the jargon and heavy on the realities of graduate school.

Rating:
Summary: A real disappointment...
Review: I had high hopes for this one, in preparation for teaching a course on research methods. I found the discussion entirely too abstract -- odd, given Becker's insistence that he would use examples to illustrate his points. There are some intriguing discussions, but much of what I found was not terribly useful.