The Craft of Research (Booth, Colomb, Williams) – 3rd Edition – my reading notes

Every few weeks, somebody asks me for recommendations of books on academic writing, “how to do a PhD”, or research methods. Most of the time, I answer based on what I have available either at home or at my office, or what I can recall from memory. And as I noted in my Twitter thread related to this book, I had forgotten about “The Craft of Research“, whose fourth edition has more authors. I own the third edition, which was still written by Booth, Colomb and Williams, and this is the one I am going to be referring to throughout this blog post, but you may want to get the most recent edition.

I very strongly recommend this book.

My Twitter thread summarizes what I think are the key elements of BCW, particularly their approach to writing stuff that can be supported by evidence (their Claim, Warrant, Reason, Evidence, Acknowledgement and Response model is a bit overwrought, I think, and I preferred their previous approach that had Warrant, Claim, Evidence .

This is the current Booth, Colomb and Williams model of how one should write their research (note that they include Warrant, Reason, Acknowledgement and Response, Claim and Evidence). From Booth et al 2008, p. 116. You can see that through time, BCW have evolved their model. pic.twitter.com/VBBJqO9NgK

— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) June 13, 2019

I also loved how BCW ask us that we ought to question our argument (p. 140 in BCW 2008 Third Edition). I also loved that the point where I see much research fails (positing alternative hypotheses/explanations) is well taken by BCW 2008, pp. 142-143) pic.twitter.com/yosZxDbpiv

— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) June 13, 2019

Not surprising anyone, I had been thinking about how we present evidence and write our results already (see thread below) https://t.co/4xmaU27uXL

— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) June 13, 2019

If I were teaching a research methodology course or a thesis seminar, I would very much use BCW to guide my students throughout the research process.

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