Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While Youre Doing It (Chicago Guides to Writin

leondumoulin.nl: Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You' re Doing It (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing).
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Return to Book Page. Preview — Tricks of the Trade by Howard S. Tricks of the Trade: Drawing on more than four decades of experience as a researcher and teacher, Howard Becker now brings to students and researchers the many valuable techniques he has learned. Tricks of the Trade will help students learn how to think about research projects. Assisted by Becker's sage advice, students can make better sense of their research and simultaneously generate fresh Drawing on more than four decades of experience as a researcher and teacher, Howard Becker now brings to students and researchers the many valuable techniques he has learned.

Assisted by Becker's sage advice, students can make better sense of their research and simultaneously generate fresh ideas on where to look next for new data.

Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You’re Doing It, Becker

The tricks cover four broad areas of social science: Becker's advice ranges from simple tricks such as changing an interview question from "Why? Becker has extracted these tricks from a variety of fields such as art history, anthropology, sociology, literature, and philosophy; and his dazzling variety of references ranges from James Agee to Ludwig Wittgenstein. Becker finds the common principles that lie behind good social science work, principles that apply to both quantitative and qualitative research.

He offers practical advice, ideas students can apply to their data with the confidence that they will return with something they hadn't thought of before. Like Writing for Social Scientists, Tricks of the Trade will bring aid and comfort to generations of students.

Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It

Written in the informal, accessible style for which Becker is known, this book will be an essential resource for students in a wide variety of fields. Becker's stories and reflections make a great book, one that will find its way into the hands of a great many social scientists, and as with everything he writes, it is lively and accessible, a joy to read. Paperback , pages. Published January 19th by University of Chicago Press first published To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

To ask other readers questions about Tricks of the Trade , please sign up. I want an overview into quantitative research. Is the book simple enough to be enjoyed by a student who just need to have an organised way of thinking using and interpreting quantitative data? The aim is to continue into areas of specialisation into social sciences research. See 1 question about Tricks of the Trade…. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Jun 23, Kristi rated it liked it Shelves: In this book, Becker attempts the difficult but often highly demanded feat of giving people "tricks" to deal with their research-in-progress.

He plays the helpful, probing dissertation adviser, encouraging you to see things in new ways, choose your cases such that you fin In this book, Becker attempts the difficult but often highly demanded feat of giving people "tricks" to deal with their research-in-progress. He plays the helpful, probing dissertation adviser, encouraging you to see things in new ways, choose your cases such that you find all instances of your phenomenon, and adjust your concepts such that they actually fit what you find. He also probes the logic of causality and analysis in the final section of his book, drawing together methods such as qualitative comparative analysis and analytical induction.

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I think this book would be useful to two sorts of people: I think this book would be slow-going for someone not engaged in research; I wouldn't suggest it for the casual reader. The times I found it most helpful were when it resonated with challenges that I was facing or had recently faced. I can also see myself suggesting similar techniques to anyone who came to me for help.

You're probably going to be most engaged if you are a sociologist, and your interest will probably wane in proportion to how far your field is from sociology. May 19, Nick Klagge rated it liked it Shelves: My boss a PhD economist lent this to me some time ago, and as I've recently been feeling inclined to go back to school for an econ PhD, I picked it up a couple of months ago I didn't finish it until now because I accidentally left it in my sister's car in DC.

The author is a sociologist, so many of the topics and approaches that he discussed were new to me. And while I didn't read anything that seems like it would be directly useful in economics research, I have a feeling that several of Bec My boss a PhD economist lent this to me some time ago, and as I've recently been feeling inclined to go back to school for an econ PhD, I picked it up a couple of months ago I didn't finish it until now because I accidentally left it in my sister's car in DC.

And while I didn't read anything that seems like it would be directly useful in economics research, I have a feeling that several of Becker's ideas, or at least perspectives, will stay with me.


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He focuses a lot on the idea of exploring and pushing your sample space, and in particular looking proactively for cases that would challenge your hypothesis. I also enjoyed the discussion of "analytic induction," specifically the question of to what extent it's appropriate for a researcher to redefine the concepts being studied as he or she learns more about them. In many ways this book reminded me of Deborah Stone's excellent "Policy Paradox"--taking a subject that people often inaccurately portray as a supremely rational process and talking seriously about the roles that imagery and narrative play in its conduct.

Aug 10, Erhardt Graeff marked it as to-read Shelves: This is not as good Becker's seminal "Writing for Social Scientists", then again it's very different. It's both a methods book and not a methods book. It's more like old timer wisdom backed up by an annotated bibliography of Becker's favorite studies, many done by himself, and more by his friends and mentors.

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Jan 23, Burke rated it really liked it Shelves: Though he runs off on a flight of positivistic, logocentric fancy in the last chapter, the first three quarters of this book is full of practical questions and sensitivities to use in qualitative research, particularly ethnography. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App.

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To learn more about Amazon Sponsored Products, click here. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Learn more about Amazon Prime. Drawing on more than four decades of experience as a researcher and teacher, Howard Becker now brings to students and researchers the many valuable techniques he has learned. Tricks of the Trade will help students learn how to think about research projects.

Assisted by Becker's sage advice, students can make better sense of their research and simultaneously generate fresh ideas on where to look next for new data. The tricks cover four broad areas of social science: Becker's advice ranges from simple tricks such as changing an interview question from "Why? Becker has extracted these tricks from a variety of fields such as art history, anthropology, sociology, literature, and philosophy; and his dazzling variety of references ranges from James Agee to Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Becker finds the common principles that lie behind good social science work, principles that apply to both quantitative and qualitative research. He offers practical advice, ideas students can apply to their data with the confidence that they will return with something they hadn't thought of before. Like Writing for Social Scientists, Tricks of the Trade will bring aid and comfort to generations of students.

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Written in the informal, accessible style for which Becker is known, this book will be an essential resource for students in a wide variety of fields. Becker's stories and reflections make a great book, one that will find its way into the hands of a great many social scientists, and as with everything he writes, it is lively and accessible, a joy to read. Read more Read less. Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Writing for Social Scientists: Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences.

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