Comments on: The Craft of Research, Third Edition

By: Gunda

Gunda — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:00:04 +0000

I read this book about a month before I submitted my dissertation (in U.S. history) and it convinced me to completely rewrite my introduction. That experience left me kicking myself for thinking I was too advanced for these sorts of guides and for not consulting this book earlier. The sections on formulating a topic (how to turn a general interest into a question/problem to be researched) and warrants (how to match claims to evidence) are especially helpful. Make no mistake about it, this book can help researchers at all levels, and I have had many students, both undergraduate and graduate, tell me how happy they were that they took my advice to read this book.

By: Ulmer

Ulmer — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:35:21 +0000

The third edition of this classic text pales when compared to the second edition. Many of the changes are cosmetic in nature and often blur what was clearly and succinctly stated in the second edition. For example, rearranging paragraphs within chapters often detract from what were logical sequences of ideas and information found in the second edition. Unfortunately, the authors, sans Booth, appear to abandon their own advice in order to create a new edition that will bolster sales. I hope the fourth edition, if there is a fourth edition, returns to the high standards one comes to expect from the University of Chicago and its press.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:09:51 +0000

Although there are many books on writing research or term papers, I have not found anything else which brings together material on planning, reasoning and writing the research paper as well as this book. Ignore any reviewers who make this book out to be a simplistic text. It is an excellent work on well reasoned writing that even most graduate students can benefit greatly from reading. As a professor of a graduate class on Research and Writing, I have recommended and required this book for several years. The book guides the reader from an idea of a topic, to defining a question, to formulating the conceptually signifcant research problem. It briefly covers finding, evaluating and using primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Then a major portion of the book is devoted to understanding effective reasoning in the writing process. This is based quite a bit on professor Stephen Toulmin’s practical approach to effective reasoning and argumentation. The Craft of Research diagrams and explains claims, reasons, evidence and warrants. It has detailed illustrations of warrants and when to use them, as well as how to challenge them. The book has other sections on organizing, drafting,and revising a paper. It also has a chapter on communicating information visually using tables, graphs and charts. Rather than focusing on the simple mechanics or obvious steps in writing a serious research paper, this book concentrates on the more difficult tasks of clearly defining the conceptual problem and addressing it with in depth, effective reasoning.