THE CRAFT OF RESEARCH

The Craft of Research



The Craft of Research

Title: The craft of research

Authors: Wayne Booth, Gregory GColomb and Joseph M Williams Publisher: Chicago University Press

Overview of the book

The craft of research offers practical advice on the fundamentals of research to college and university students in all fields of study. The Craft of Research teaches much more than the mechanics of fact gathering: it explains how to approach a research project as an analytical process. The authors chart every stage of research, from finding a topic and generating research questions about it to marshalling evidence, constructing arguments, and writing everything up in a final report that is a model of authority. Their advice is designed for use by both beginners and seasoned practitioners, and for projects from class papers to dissertations. This book categorizes into five parts.

Part one

Part one of book discusses about who needs research? Good researchers can find information, evaluate it, and report on it, clearly and concisely. More over it focuses that Research is the sheer pleasure of solving a puzzle, of discovering something that no one else knows and Research is hard work that may lead a person down "a crooked path, taking unexpected turns, sometimes up blind alleys, even looping back on itself." Further it emphasis on the Starting a Research Project. The book says experience researchers know what lies ahead--hard work, but also the pleasure of the hunt; some frustration, but more satisfaction; periods of confusion, but confidence that, in the end, it will all come together and that the result is worth the effort. Working with a Plan includes two kinds of plans: One helps them prepare and conduct their research; the second helps them draft their report of it. They usually begin with a question and a plan to guide their search for an answer. They draw up a second plans, a rough blueprint for a first draft--maybe no more than a sketch of an outline.

Part two

Part two of the book discusses the problems that researcher face in research. The starting point for research is the existence of a situation that has drawn the attention of future researchers and that in his opinion, needs to be investigated to clarify it, improve it, make proposals, resolve, etc., to pass any further action. This initial part of any investigation begins to write down the reasons a person has to praise the investigation. What ...