The Craft of Research, 2nd edition (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Rating:
Summary: Simplistic
Review: Great for the high school or intro for a prepatory course frosh year in college. Otherwise, past the intro and the elevator story, worthless.

Rating:
Summary: Not excellent, but decent.
Review: I can't say that I was bowled over by this book, but I think a beginner would find it very helpful. The only really good critique I can give of this book is that it is not for the intermediate to expert researcher. Most will find it a bit pedestrian and very basic. To the beginner or the novice I think this book would be a very valuable tool. Buy it for a freshman in college before the go to school, they will be able to use it and it will help them.

Rating:
Summary: Simplistic
Review: I picked up the book The Craft Of Research by Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams at the library awhile back, and I finished it over the course of this week. Not quite what I was expecting, but useful if you buy it for the right reason. I was looking for something more geared towards doing research for articles and such. This is geared towards the college student or professional researcher who has to produce research papers on a regular basis. It teaches you how to formulate your argument and properly research your material to make and prove your points. Probably very helpful if you have an actual project to do at the time you're reading it. Definitely a reference book you'd want to have on your shelf.

That's not to say that you couldn't gain some insight on article writing from this book. It's just, in my opinion, a bit too advanced for the type of writing I would do. But because it covers the target audience well, I can't complain.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasure and a necessity
Review: I read this book cover to cover as required reading to help me understand the process of writing my senior thesis. The thesis seminar itself lacked any real structure and this book provided the anchor I needed in gathering, sorting, and understanding the research I did. More important, however, was the role it played in my initial thinking through of the project. The single most significant skill I learned--but by no means would consider myself having mastered--is understanding how to ask the right questions. This helped tremendously in refining my research topic and still guides me today when I watch the news, listen to the radio, or read the newspaper because I am more able to be critical of the types of claims pundits and others make. This book is perhaps the single most valuable resource I encountered in my undergraduate education. Luckily for those not forced to read it in school, it is written so well (and in my perhaps nerdish opinion, beautifully) that it makes for compelling pleasure reading. Reading this book--whether choosing sections most germane to your interests/needs or cover to cover--will allow you to improve how you think. The authors are down-to-earth and even share their own research foibles in each section. What a charming group of authors who are able to share valuable, potentially complex information while retaining their "human" voices (rather than sounding like a textbook)! Highly recommended to anyone who likes to think, read, or write. I would give more stars if available.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read For Everyone At Any Level
Review: If you are a student writing your first paper for collage or if you are a seasoned researcher, this book is the best book on the subject you will find.
The authors take great care in taking you step by step through the complex task for writing scientific and technical research papers. Starting with explaining why we write research papers, over the subject of how to construct a solid argument, to who we write for, it is all covered. Unlike other manuals, this one centers on the most important thing about research papers, the target audience. Quick Tips at the end of most chapters give you a solid starting point in case you run into problems with your own work making this book an indispensable reference on your desk.
I also enjoy the fluid writing style that makes the book actually fun to read. You will be surprised how quickly you will be able to write a solid paper and identify flaws in other peoples work.

Rating:
Summary: Help for every part of the way.
Review: Just a few points...

The second edition of this volume (2003) has been fine tuned and, in my opinion, improved.

Personally I found it helpful to copy and adapt the diagrams on how to construct arguments, with blank, fill-in boxes for trialling different concepts. Please note, however, that the "acknowledgement and response" (i.e. acknowledgement and response to exceptions to rules, seemingly opposing evidence, etc) part of the "claim, evidence, warrant, reason" diagram should be linked with dual-direction arrows to each other part of the argument. This is the case because an acknowledgement and response may be required for any part of the argument process. The authors make this clear themselves in the text, but it is not so clear in the diagram.

I found the bibliographical pointers at the back of the book to be relevant, up to date and of great assistance to anyone about to embark on a lengthy and challenging research project.

For those wishing to expand their knowledge on how to construct arguments, Williams and Colomb have also written "The Craft of Argument" which is now also in its second edition (2003). There is some degree of repetition here, but it is well worthwhile learning to firmly ground your arguments.

I particularly liked the tip (in the volume at hand) about placing a warrant first, which a hostile audience is likely to accept. Then moving to specifics which will cause your reader some real cognitive dissonance!

Rating:
Summary: How to conduct research and write an effective report
Review: This appears in its second edition, completely revised since the 1995 edition to provide students and researchers with guidance on how to conduct research and write an effective report. From how to do research on the Internet and how to gauge the reliability of sources there to new information on visual presentation choices for data, this is packed with practical applications and examples.

Rating:
Summary: Mandatory for all researchers
Review: This is a great book on writing a research report, useful for both beginners and seasoned researchers. It walks you through all the phases of your research project, starting from picking up your topic, through the actual research, note-taking, to writing up your findings, down to sentence level structure and style. For me a most useful part of the book was the beginning: finding a topic, defining your research problem, qualifying it, and determining your warrants; especially revealing was the relationship between your research problem and a wider body of theory, and how you must be explicit about your "warrants" to make a real contribution to "knowledge" or to "solving a practical problem." Even though I had read many other books on writing such as "The Clockwork Muse" or "Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day" none was as explicit as this one on how to combine both Research and Writing (the other books assume that writing a research project entails a progressive, smooth process: you pick a topic, you research it, and you write up your conclusions/findings), nothing farther from the truth; as I learned from painful experience and as was made explicit by this book, to my relief, a research project is a dynamic process in which research and writing go together; they complement and reinforce each other. This book teaches you just how to do this and it was the greatest lesson I learned.

Rating:
Summary: Art Takes Many Forms
Review: This is certainly so when it comes to "The Craft of Research" as this is a fundamental point to remember when one is learning how to prepare research which is above and beyond the mundane and forgettable.

"The Craft of Research" is told from the insiders perspective and ought to be carried on one's person to reflect and review in those quiet moments that are more and more widely spaced these days.

Of course the business of finding the raw answers in short order is sometime key and I've found The Practical Pundit to be a quick solution to gathering my material prior to sitting down to order and write.

http://www.practicalpundit.com