Recommended Readings

Recommended Readings on the Craft of Scholarship

  In the Spencer program, we draw upon four books that have been particularly helpful for doctoral students who are in the process of learning how to do research.  We use them intensively within the program, where they help structure interactions between mentors and fellows and where they provide the background reading and often the primary focus of the monthly retreats we held throughout the year.  As a result of this experience, we have been encouraging all doctoral students in the College of Education to buy, read, and use these books themselves in their own efforts to becomes able scholars of education.  The books are available in the University bookstore in the International Center – in the trade section on the shelves labeled “Style Manuals.”  Based in part on the successful experience with these books in the Spencer program, the college is now in the process of incorporating these books into its sequence of required courses in research practice.  The books we have been using are the following (all are in softbound editions):

Wayne C. Booth et al.  (1995).  The Craft of Research.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  $12.95

Howard S. Becker.  (1998).  Tricks of the Trade: How to Think About Your Research While You're Doing It.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.  $13.95

Joseph M. Williams.  (1990).  Style: Toward Clarity and Grace.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  $11.00

Anthony Weston.  (1992).  A Rulebook for Arguments (2nd ed.).  Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.  $4.95

The Booth book provides a smart and systematic account of how to carry out research from beginning to end.  He starts with the problem of how to conceptualize a study and formulate a question, then moves on to a discussion of how to deal with all the succeeding steps in the research process:  dealing with data, using scholarly sources, constructing valid claims based on data, formulating persuasive arguments, representing data, organizing research reports, revising and refocusing arguments, and so on.  This is a wonderfully rich resource for anyone who wants to do research and write about it.  He manages to be both quite explicit (the difference between a research problem and a research question; how to use quotations in academic writing) while always emphasizing the intellectual work that research entails.

The Becker book focuses on "tricks of the trade" in doing research.  What he means by this is not the technical tricks but the intellectual tricks that allow researchers to make sense of their data – by asking productive questions, adopting fruitful angles for analysis, employing logical strategies, and avoiding common mental traps.  In separate chapters he focuses on imagery (metaphors, images of how things work as a starting place for research efforts), sampling (data as a mechanism for persuasion, validity, representativeness), concepts (uses of theory, approaches to conceptualizing what you see), and logic (considering the full range of possibilities, looking for what's missing).  He provides some wonderful examples of "how to think about research while you're doing it" (in the words of the subtitle), drawing heavily on his own research experience.  Tricks include such things as treating the exception as the rule, looking for the case that would upset your theory, and exploring the assumptions behind the observation that "nothing is happening."

The book by Williams is the best book I have seen on the issue of how to write in a clear, concise, effective, and graceful manner.  It's better than the old standby in this category – Strunk and White's Elements of Style – because it goes beyond simply stating a principle and providing an example. As Williams puts it on the opening page, "I want to do more than just urge writers to 'Omit Needless Words' or 'Be clear.'  Telling me to 'Be clear' is like telling me to 'Hit the ball squarely.'  I know that.  What I don't know is how to do it.  To explain how to write clearly, I have to go beyond platitudes."  This is exactly what he does.  He provides a wonderfully illuminating course on the basic principles of good writing, along with a rich array of examples both before and after the application of these principles.  This is great stuff that can help any of us clean up our prose.

The Weston book is the clearest and most usable manual available to help scholars make effective arguments.  The author is a philosopher who has an uncanny ability to provide the lay reader with a concise and understandable outline of the basic rules for constructing arguments that work.   In it he walks the reader through the minefield of fallacies that so frequently destroy the most earnest attempts to make claims and support them.  His rules are easy to follow and his examples are quite helpful in showing what good and bad arguments look like in practice.  The first part of the book focuses on the problem of creating effective short arguments; the second part extends this to the process of writing arguments that extend over a full-length paper or book.  This short book is a must read for all of us who are in the business of trying to write in a manner that is both logical and persuasive.