FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly helpful
Review: I have used this book for some time with a range of undergraduates at UC Berkeley. Several of my colleagues use it as well. It is a very helpful, practical introduction to real-world research, the most useful book we have found on the subject. It helps students and researchers understand the processes of interviewing, making field notes, and collecting and recording data. The style is very accessible. Students who have found it useful for other classes include those studying sociology, anthropology, fiction, advanced nonfiction, and ethnic studies.

Read in combination with some complex books of ethnography, including Clifford Geertz, for example, it can provide the structure to help students understand the concept of fieldwork.

I highly recommend taking a look at this one.

Rating:
Summary: Probably Not the Best Book Out There
Review: Overall, I would say this book is not the best. I have not thoroughly reviewed fieldworking textbooks, but I found this one to be a little dry, and I am not a fan of the author either. There is something about her voice that is irking. The only plus that I would give this book is that there are a lot of examples of different ways to write a fieldworking paper. As a person who has never written one, I found these helpful because I was able to compare my voice and style to those of the authors' students. If you can find this in another book, however, go with the other one. This book is just okay.