The Craft of Research

With more than three-quarters of a million copies sold since its first publication,The Craft of Research has helped generations of researchers at every level—from first-year undergraduates, to advanced graduate students, to research reporters in business and government—learn how to conduct effective and meaningful research. Conceived by seasoned researchers and educators Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, this fundamental work explains how to find and evaluate sources, to anticipate and respond to reader reservations, and to integrate these pieces into an argument that stands up to reader critique.
The fourth edition has been thoroughly but respectfully revised by Joseph Bizup and William T. FitzGerald. It retains the original five-part structure, as well as the sound advice of earlier editions but now clearly reflects the way research and writing are taught and practiced today. Its chapters on finding and engaging sources now incorporate recent developments in library and Internet research, emphasizing new techniques made possible by online databases and search engines. Bizup and FitzGerald provide fresh examples and standardized terminology to clarify concepts like argument, warrant, and problem.
Following the same guiding principle as earlier editions, that the skills of doing and reporting research are not just for elite students but for everyone, this new edition retains the accessible voice and direct approach that have madeThe Craft of Reasearch a leader in the field of research reference. With updated examples and information on engaging contemporary sources, this beloved classic is ready for the next generation of researchers.

Joseph Bizup is associate professor in the Department of English at Boston University. He is the coeditor of the thirteenth edition of the Norton Reader and editor of the eleventh edition of Joseph M. Williams’sStyle: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. William T. FitzGerald is assistant professor in the Department of English at Rutgers University.Wayne C. Booth (1921–2005) was the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. His many books includedThe Rhetoric of Fiction and For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals, both published by the University of Chicago Press. Gregory G. Colomb (1951–2011) was professor of English at the University of Virginia and the author ofDesigns on Truth: The Poetics of the Augustan Mock-Epic. Joseph M. Williams (1933–2008) was professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago and the author ofStyle: Lessons in Clarity and Grace.