The Craft of Research

Here's another useful tool for all of you English-Writing majors out there. The book I'm using for another class that I find extremely useful is called the The Craft of Research Third Edition by Gregory Colomb and Joseph Williams. The book's original author, Wayne Booth, passed away in 2005, but I didn't include him here. Anyway, the book is available at most college libraries or online for a small amount. I wish I had discovered this book back in my freshman year of college. Maybe I would have passed more courses!

The breakdown of this book is as follows. The authors state in the preface that they wrote this book to

• guide you through the complexities of turning a topic or question into a research problem whose significance matches the effort you put into solving it
• help you organize and draft a report that justifies the effort
• show you how to read your report as your readers will so that you can revise it into one that they will read with the understanding and respect it deserves

The authors state what sets them apart from other handbooks. For the most part, I think they are successful in their reasoning. The book is divided into five parts:

• Research, Researchers and Readers
• Asking Questions, Finding Answers
• Making a Claim and Supporting It
• Planning, Drafting and Revising
• Some Last Considerations (includes postscript and appendix)

So the class in question in a new course titled Research in Language and Literature. The fine details need to be ironed out. Unfortunately, we're the "guinea pigs" for the new course; it needs to be re-formatted before being offered again. I don't like the other required text for this course, it's a book titled, The English Studies Book by Rob Pope. Worst writing book ever! I can't get into it. I recommend skipping the Pope book and going for the aforementioned book, The Craft of Research.

To be honest, I don't like the professor teaching the course, but she did point the class in the direction of at least one good book. So get your hands on this book! Even more so if you're English-Writing at Kean.