Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog


William B. Badke - 2000
    It is possible to develop significant skills in order to make the writing process much easier than you think. In "Research Strategies," author William Badke offers a clear, simple, and often humorous roadmap for conducting research and navigating the vast new world of information and technology. In this, the fourth edition, Badke details the entire research paper process from start to finish. "Research Strategies" provides a plethora of insightful and helpful information, including:Finding and narrowing a topic Creating an outline Searching databases Understanding metadata Using library catalogs and journal databases Conducting Internet research Organizing research notes Writing the actual paper"Research Strategies" explains the skills and strategies you need to efficiently and effectively complete a research project from topic to finished product. With the information provided here, research doesn't have to be frustrating or boring. Badke's strategies present a sure path through the amazing and complex new world of information.

Master English FAST: An Uncommon Guide to Speaking Extraordinary English


Julian Northbrook - 2017
    If you’re struggling to learn English and speak it well in your work, business, teaching or daily life this is the book for you."Master English FAST – An Uncommon Guide to Speaking Extraordinary English", by Dr Julian Northbrook, will get you started on the right track by showing you step-by-step what to do as an intermediate or advanced English learner to speak English as a second language at a very high level.This is Julian's most complete and comprehensive guide on the topic and is the recommended starting point for all of his English improvement books.

Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory


Peter Barry - 1995
    This new and expanded third edition continues to offer students and readers the best one-volume introduction to the field.The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unraveled. Unlike many books which assume certain positions about the critics and the theories they represent, Peter Barry allows readers to develop their own ideas once first principles and concepts have been grasped.

Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article


Howard S. Becker - 1986
    But for some reason they choose to ignore those guidelines and churn out turgid, pompous, and obscure prose. Distinguished sociologist Howard S. Becker, true to his calling, looks for an explanation for this bizarre behavior not in the psyches of his colleagues but in the structure of his profession. In this highly personal and inspirational volume he considers academic writing as a social activity.Both the means and the reasons for writing a thesis or article or book are socially structured by the organization of graduate study, the requirements for publication, and the conditions for promotion, and the pressures arising from these situations create the writing style so often lampooned and lamented. Drawing on his thirty-five years' experience as a researcher, writer, and teacher, Becker exposes the foibles of the academic profession to the light of sociological analysis and gentle humor. He also offers eminently useful suggestions for ways to make social scientists better and more productive writers. Among the topics discussed are how to overcome the paralyzing fears of chaos and ridicule that lead to writer's block; how to rewrite and revise, again and again; how to adopt a persona compatible with lucid prose; how to deal with that academic bugaboo, "the literature." There is also a chapter by Pamela Richards on the personal and professional risks involved in scholarly writing.In recounting his own trials and errors Becker offers his readers not a model to be slavishly imitated but an example to inspire. Throughout, his focus is on the elusive work habits that contribute to good writing, not the more easily learned rules of grammar and punctuation. Although his examples are drawn from sociological literature, his conclusions apply to all fields of social science, and indeed to all areas of scholarly endeavor. The message is clear: you don't have to write like a social scientist to be one.

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers


Kate L. Turabian - 1955
    Bellow. Strauss. Friedman. The University of Chicago has been the home of some of the most important thinkers of the modern age. But perhaps no name has been spoken with more respect than Turabian. The dissertation secretary at Chicago for decades, Kate Turabian literally wrote the book on the successful completion and submission of the student paper. Her Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, created from her years of experience with research projects across all fields, has sold more than seven million copies since it was first published in 1937.Now, with this seventh edition, Turabian’s Manual has undergone its most extensive revision, ensuring that it will remain the most valuable handbook for writers at every level—from first-year undergraduates, to dissertation writers apprehensively submitting final manuscripts, to senior scholars who may be old hands at research and writing but less familiar with new media citation styles. Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and the late Wayne C. Booth—the gifted team behind The Craft of Research—and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff combined their wide-ranging expertise to remake this classic resource. They preserve Turabian’s clear and practical advice while fully embracing the new modes of research, writing, and source citation brought about by the age of the Internet.Booth, Colomb, and Williams significantly expand the scope of previous editions by creating a guide, generous in length and tone, to the art of research and writing. Growing out of the authors’ best-selling Craft of Research, this new section provides students with an overview of every step of the research and writing process, from formulating the right questions to reading critically to building arguments and revising drafts. This leads naturally to the second part of the Manual for Writers, which offers an authoritative overview of citation practices in scholarly writing, as well as detailed information on the two main citation styles (“notes-bibliography” and “author-date”). This section has been fully revised to reflect the recommendations of the fifteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style and to present an expanded array of source types and updated examples, including guidance on citing electronic sources.The final section of the book treats issues of style—the details that go into making a strong paper. Here writers will find advice on a wide range of topics, including punctuation, table formatting, and use of quotations. The appendix draws together everything writers need to know about formatting research papers, theses, and dissertations and preparing them for submission. This material has been thoroughly vetted by dissertation officials at colleges and universities across the country.This seventh edition of Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is a classic reference revised for a new age. It is tailored to a new generation of writers using tools its original author could not have imagined—while retaining the clarity and authority that generations of scholars have come to associate with the name Turabian.

The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control


Ted Striphas - 2009
    With examples from trade journals, news media, films, advertisements, and a host of other commercial and scholarly materials, Striphas tells a story of modern publishing that proves, even in a rapidly digitizing world, books are anything but dead.From the rise of retail superstores to Oprah's phenomenal reach, Striphas tracks the methods through which the book industry has adapted (or has failed to adapt) to rapid changes in twentieth-century print culture. Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon.com have established new routes of traffic in and around books, and pop sensations like Harry Potter and the Oprah Book Club have inspired the kind of brand loyalty that could only make advertisers swoon. At the same time, advances in digital technology have presented the book industry with extraordinary threats and unique opportunities.Striphas's provocative analysis offers a counternarrative to those who either triumphantly declare the end of printed books or deeply mourn their passing. With wit and brilliant insight, he isolates the invisible processes through which books have come to mediate our social interactions and influence our habits of consumption, integrating themselves into our routines and intellects like never before.

Teaching What You Don't Know


Therese Huston - 2009
    You've taught Kant for twenty years, but now you're team-teaching a new course on Ethics and the Internet. The personality theorist retired and wasn't replaced, so now you, the neuroscientist, have to teach the "Sexual Identity" course. Everyone in academia knows it and no one likes to admit it: faculty often have to teach courses in areas they don't know very well. The challenges are even greater when students don't share your cultural background, lifestyle, or assumptions about how to behave in a classroom.In this practical and funny book, an experienced teaching consultant offers many creative strategies for dealing with typical problems. How can you prepare most efficiently for a new course in a new area? How do you look credible? And what do you do when you don't have a clue how to answer a question?Encouraging faculty to think of themselves as learners rather than as experts, Therese Huston points out that authority in the classroom doesn't come only, or even mostly, from perfect knowledge. She offers tips for introducing new topics in a lively style, for gauging students' understanding, for reaching unresponsive students, for maintaining discussions when they seem to stop dead, and -yes- for dealing with those impossible questions.Original, useful, and hopeful, this book reminds you that teaching what you don't know, to students whom you may not understand, is not just a job. It's an adventure."

The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods


Antonin Sertillanges - 1921
    Sertillanges's teachings are as timeless as any truths which describe the genuine nature of things. . . . This book is highly recommended not only for intellectuals, but also for students and those discerning their vocation in life."--New Oxford Review"[This] is above all a practical book. It discusses with a wealth of illustration and insight such subjects as the organization of the intellectual worker's time, materials, and his life; the integration of knowledge and the relation of one's specialty to general knowledge; the choice and use of reading; the discipline of memory; the taking of notes, their classification and use; and the preparation and organization of the final production."--The Sign

Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes


Robert M. Emerson - 1995
    Using actual unfinished, "working" notes as examples, they illustrate options for composing, reviewing, and working fieldnotes into finished texts. They discuss different organizational and descriptive strategies, including evocation of sensory detail, synthesis of complete scenes, the value of partial versus omniscient perspectives, and of first person versus third person accounts. Of particular interest is the author's discussion of notetaking as a mindset. They show how transforming direct observations into vivid descriptions results not simply from good memory but more crucially from learning to envision scenes as written. A good ethnographer, they demonstrate, must learn to remember dialogue and movement like an actor, to see colors and shapes like a painter, and to sense moods and rhythms like a poet.The authors also emphasize the ethnographer's core interest in presenting the perceptions and meanings which the people studied attach to their own actions. They demonstrate the subtle ways that writers can make the voices of people heard in the texts they produce. Finally, they analyze the "processing" of fieldnotes—the practice of coding notes to identify themes and methods for selecting and weaving together fieldnote excerpts to write a polished ethnography.This book, however, is more than a "how-to" manual. The authors examine writing fieldnotes as an interactive and interpretive process in which the researcher's own commitments and relationships with those in the field inevitably shape the character and content of those fieldnotes. They explore the conscious and unconscious writing choices that produce fieldnote accounts. And they show how the character and content of these fieldnotes inevitably influence the arguments and analyses the ethnographer can make in the final ethnographic tale.This book shows that note-taking is a craft that can be taught. Along with Tales of the Field and George Marcus and Michael Fisher's Anthropology as Cultural Criticism, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes is an essential tool for students and social scientists alike.

Metaphors We Live By


George Lakoff - 1980
    Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by", metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.

Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences


José L. Galvan - 1999
    Numerous examples throughout the book show students what should and should not be done when writing reviews.- Emphasizes critical analysis of reports of empirical research in academic journals--making it ideal as a supplement for research methods courses. This book makes it possible for students to work independently on a critical literature review as a term project.- Nine model literature reviews at the end of the book provide the stimulus for homework assignments and classroom discussions.- The activities at the end of each chapter keep students moving toward their goal of writing a polished, professional review of academic literature.- Most examples include material from recently published research. Includes nine model literature reviews for discussion and evaluation.Table of ContentsChapters1 Writing Reviews of Academic Literature: An Overview2 Considerations in Writing Reviews for Specific Purposes3 Selecting a Topic and Identifying Literature for Review4 General Guidelines for Analyzing Literature5 Analyzing Quantitative Research Literature6 Analyzing Qualitative Research Literature7 Building Tables to Summarize Literature8 Synthesizing Literature Prior to Writing a Review9 Guidelines for Writing a First Draft10 Guidelines for Developing a Coherent Essay11 Guidelines on Style, Mechanics, and Language Usage12 Incorporating Feedback and Refining the First Draft13 Preparing a Reference List14 Comprehensive Self-Editing Checklist for Refining the Final DraftModel Literature Reviews for Discussion and EvaluationReview A: Cyberbullying Among College StudentsJournal of School ViolenceReview B: Waterpipe Smoking Among College Students in the United StatesJournal of American College HealthReview C: The Effect of Student Discussion Frequency on Mathematics AchievementThe Journal of Experimental EducationReview D: Behaviors in Couples With a History of InfidelityJournal of Family PsychologyReview E: The Prevalence of Stalking Among College StudentsJournal of American College HealthReview F: School Social Workers' Experiences With Youth Suicidal BehaviorChildren & SchoolsReview G: Demographic and Academic Trends in Drinking Patterns and Alcohol-Related ProblemsJournal of Alcohol and Drug EducationReview H: Overnight Stays and Children's Relationships With Resident and Nonresident Parents After DivorceJournal of Family IssuesReview I: Language Brokering: An Integrative Review of the LiteratureHispanic Journal of Behavioral SciencesProfessor Reviews"Students have found Writing "Literature reviews one of the most helpful books.... Even students not in the course have gone to the bookstore looking for this book."-- Kathleen N. Bondy, University of Central Arkansas"Lucid, readable, and concise. Excellent detailed table of contents. Good full-length examples of literature reviews."-- Paul K. Dezendorf, East Carolina University"Excellent. A concise, 'task analytic' presentation of the complex steps necessary in writing literature reviews."-- Tom Cooke, Sonoma State University"Readable, concise, clear overview of the subject. My students rave about it. One said, 'I will keep this book for my whole master's [in nursing] program.'"-- Madge M. D

What They Didn't Teach You in Graduate School: 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career


Paul Gray - 2008
    What will academic life be like? How do you discover its tacit rules? Develop the habits and networks needed for success? What issues will you encounter if you re a person of color, or a woman? How is higher education changing? In 199 succinct, and often humorous but seriously practical hints, Paul Gray and David E. Drew share their combined experience of many years as faculty and (recovering) administrators to offer insider advice the kind that 's rarely taught or even talked about in graduate school. For instance, Gray and Drew advise you on what you can do to become known in your field and also to be humble about your Ph.D. They also warn you of the danger points along the Ph.D. path, and the possible stumbling blocks with litigious students. Their hints can cover topics as lofty as quantitative and qualitative methods and as mundane but still as important as negotiating campus parking.For easy reference as you climb the academic ladder, the hints are divided into 15 short chapters and 4 appendices covering the stages and responsibilities of faculty life. As the authors state, It is a good life and it is a lifestyle for which you even get paid . These hints will help you both make a valuable contribution to, and get the most from, academe. And if you arereally penurious, persuade a family member or friend to buy this book for you.

Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion


Rosemary Jackson - 1981
    A general theoretical section introduces recent work on fantasy, notably Tzventan Todorov's The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (1973). Dr Jackson, however, extends Todorov's ideas to include aspects of psychoanalytical theory. Seeing fantasy as primarily an expression of unconscious drives, she stresses the importance of the writings of Freud and subsequent theorists when analysing recurrent themes, such as doubling or multiplying selves, mirror images, metamorphosis and bodily disintegration.^l Gothic fiction, classic Victorian fantasies, the 'fantastic realism' of Dickens and Dostoevsky, tales by Mary Shelley, James Hogg, E.T.A. Hoffmann, George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, R.L. Stevenson, Franz Kafka, Mervyn Peake and Thomas Pynchon are among the texts covered. Through a reading of thse frequently disquieting works, Dr Jackson moves towards a definition of fantasy expressing cultural unease. These issues are discussed in relation to a wide range of fantasies with varying images of desire and disenchantment.

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste


Pierre Bourdieu - 1979
    Bourdieu's subject is the study of culture, and his objective is most ambitious: to provide an answer to the problems raised by Kant's Critique of Judgment by showing why no judgment of taste is innocent."A complex, rich, intelligent book. It will provide the historian of the future with priceless materials and it will bring an essential contribution to sociological theory."— Fernand Braudel "One of the more distinguished contributions to social theory and research in recent years . . . There is in this book an account of culture, and a methodology of its study, rich in implication for a diversity of fields of social research. The work in some ways redefines the whole scope of cultural studies."— Anthony Giddens, Partisan Review"A book of extraordinary intelligence." — Irving Louis Horowitz, Commonweal“Bourdieu’s analysis transcends the usual analysis of conspicuous consumption in two ways: by showing that specific judgments and choices matter less than an esthetic outlook in general and by showing, moreover, that the acquisition of an esthetic outlook not only advertises upper-class prestige but helps to keep the lower orders in line. In other words, the esthetic world view serves as an instrument of domination. It serves the interests not merely of status but of power. It does this, according to Bourdieu, by emphasizing individuality, rivalry, and ‘distinction’ and by devaluing the well-being of society as a whole.”— Christopher Lasch, Vogue

Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches


John W. Creswell - 1994
    It is a book that models the types of issues that best suit different approaches and allows students to understand when to use mixed methods. Furthermore, its focus on theory and paradigms is done in a way that helps students decode their meaning." --MARTHA MONTERO-SIEBURTH, University of Massachusetts, BostonNew to the Second Edition:Because mixed methods research has come into its own since the publication of the first edition, every chapter now shows how to implement a mixed methods design in your proposal or plan as well as showing how to implement qualitative and quantitative approaches Ethical issues that may arise in quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods designs have been added to a new section in Chapter 3 Writing tips and considerations have been expanded and moved to the first part of the book to get your research plan started in the right direction The latest developments in qualitative inquiry, including advocacy, participatory, and emancipatory approaches have been added to Chapter 10 Mixed methods procedures (Chapter 11) show readers how to identify types of mixed methods strategy, select data collection and analysis approaches, and plan the overall structure of the study