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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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Author: Howard S. Becker
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$14.00~~
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Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 239
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 6 x 1.1

ISBN: 0226041247
Dewey Decimal Number: 300.72
EAN: 9780226041247
ASIN: 0226041247

Publication Date: January 19, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
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: the creation of "imagery" to guide research; methods of "sampling" to generate maximum variety in the data; the development of "concepts" to organize findings; and the use of "logical" methods to explore systematically the implications of what is found. 5 tables.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars

Tricks of the Trade November 3, 2006
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a must read book for anyone doing serious research. Told with a sense of humor and encouragement.

3 out of 5 stars

Good For the Social Scientist July 14, 2005
7 out of 10 found this review helpful

I bought this book hoping it would help me do my research for my dissertation. It seems to be a reasonably sound book if you're in the social sciences (sociology, psych, anthropology, but I would advise humanities majors and researchers to skip this one. Most of the information presented in this book has no relevance to many other disciplines.

2 out of 5 stars

A real disappointment... July 17, 2001
10 out of 18 found this review helpful

I had high hopes for this one, in preparation for teaching a course on research methods. I found the discussion entirely too abstract -- odd, given Becker's insistence that he would use examples to illustrate his points. There are some intriguing discussions, but much of what I found was not terribly useful.

5 out of 5 stars

An invitation to sit in on a graduate seminar in methodology July 11, 2001
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

Howard S. Becker's Tricks of the Trade is an invitation to sit in on a graduate seminar in methodology with an experienced social science researcher. The tone is conversational and thought-provoking, often humorous. Through a quirky set of examples that includes embezzlement, theatre casting, transvestitism, forestry, and opiate addiction, Becker describes common methodological problems in research and some tricks that might be helpful in unlocking them. Although the word tricks in the title might put some readers off, the author explains that he has found these to be useful tools in tam[ing] theory...[by providing] ways of thinking that help researchers faced with concrete research problems make some progress (p. 4). These tricks are not shortcuts to the solution of theoretical problems; in fact, Becker points out that they may cause more, rather than less, work because they suggest ways of interfering with the comfortable thought routines academic life promotes and supports (p. 6).p Becker's very readable book will probably be most interesting to someone who has some research experience and has grappled with the methodological and theoretical problems it addresses. For that reason, it would be less useful as an introductory methodology textbook than it would for a beginning researcher, but reading Tricks of the Trade will benefit researchers of any experience level. The usefulness of a particular trick to a given researcher will depend on the researcher's interests and experiences, but this may well be one of those books that yields fresh insights each time it is read. The main strength of Tricks of the Trade is the glimpse it provides into the thinking of an experienced and respected researcher.

4 out of 5 stars

Addresses the research process in an easy to understand way. February 17, 1999
38 out of 43 found this review helpful

I am posed on the brink of my proposal and have been reading similar books about writing and research. This one is by far one of the best. Howard Becker is having a conversation with the reader about doing research in the social sciences. I find the concepts easy to follow and feel that his ideas have a universal applicability. I enjoy Dr. Becker's writing style, which is light on the jargon and heavy on the realities of graduate school.

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