The best research assignment
581499
I have adapted Macrorie's I-search assignment for use with a variety of students. The assignment is inquiry-based, focusing on the process of conducting research, and the completed narratives reveal each student's research skills in an effective, accessible format. I find Macrorie's method ideal for helping students learn to do academic research and then write about their research projects.
1595381
I recently bought and read several books covering different aspects of research study design and methods for a grad-level scholarly writing course. Creswell's "Research Design" was the best of the bunch by far. It was pragmatic and clear. The examples were straightforward and additive. I'll be selling the other books back to the bookstore, but keeping Creswell's "Research Design" for reference. It's that good.
98676
I purchased this book after coming across chapter 5 of the text on the web that Sage had made available for review.  The funny thing is that it was the exact chapter that I needed at the moment to assist in generating a more detailed response to a question.  I can say that out of ALL the research methods books I have read and skimmed over the last 2 to 3 years, this is by far the best out of the lot.

As an example, even with the most complex technical references I have on hand for statistics and research, this is the only one that goes that extra mile in sharing the various types/categories of simple random or systematic random sampling.  The way the text is written, it blows the dust off every corner you may have from prior statistics courses, as well as turning on a light for things that you somehow just missed or were never told.  He goes in to explain things in a way that can only be described as a good late night juicy gossip conversation with one your best pals.

I know there is a new release of this book scheduled later this year, but after going through this free chapter I couldn't wait.  I wanted to own the entire text and may consider purchasing the new volume at a later date once it does become available.  If you don't believe me, check out chapter 5 for yourself [...]
Excellent reference guide!!!
3187925
When I see the phrase Cookbook in a title, Im immediately attracted to it and once I thumb through the book, Im more times than not disappointed.  The reason for this is that the recipes presented are usually either so basic or so obscure that I would never use them.  So when I volunteered, to review this book, I was expecting to experience this once again.  However, once I got into the book, I was very pleasantly surprised.
As promised, this book provides source code examples in R and Python.  The R projects are limited to chapters 2 through 5, but give enough information to whet the appetite of anyone interested in data analysis.  Chapters 6 through 11 are focused on Python solutions and I must say, the code is very clean and the presentation is very good.
While the subjects of some of the chapters aren't really my cup of tea (Recommending Movies or Harvesting and geolocating twitter data) the authors presented the information in such a way that the examples could be extrapolated to cover many forms of data, not just movies or twitter.
Chapter 1 is dedicated to preparing the data evaluation environment on your computer for both R and Python.  It is done in a very clear and easy to follow manner without spurious packages that tend to obfuscate not only the intent of the project, but also makes the reasoning behind the need for those packages questionable.  Their choice of the free Anaconda Python distribution actually flies in the face of my above statement, however is the correct tool (in my humble opinion) for the data analysis that is to follow and will follow if you are going to continue in a serious data analysis role.  In the same vein, the section on setting up a R environment is very straight forward and allows the reader to choose between the best tool for the particular job.  Enough information is given about the usage of R vs Python for even the greenest programmer to make a reasonable decision of which one to use.
The four authors, Tony Ojeda, Sean Patrick Murphy, Benjamin Bengtort and Abhijit Dasgupta all have extremely impressive credits and have done a tremendous job on this book.  Their roles in the real world include work at Johns Hopkins University to Masters Degrees and PHDs.  I doubt anyone could have come up with a more impressive group to discuss this very complex subject.
The bottom line here is that if you are looking for a book to learn about data analysis and get snippets to help you along, then this is the book for you.  You will want to pay close attention to Chapter One when setting up your analysis workstation, since the reasoning behind the packages used is clearly explained and the examples are well done.  I would suggest that you install both R and Python as described in the book, since not all jobs are best suited by only one package.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this book a 9.5.
2882540
This book contains a great deal of knowledge that is very useful in understanding how to do research.  I have to use it for a class and am getting a great of information from it.  It is very user friendly.
4659408
I was required to read this book for a class. I expected it to be relatively dull. It's not. It's a wonderful, straight-forward, humorous and enlightening introduction to "the craft of research." These authors have tremendous synergy and a wealth of experience among them. They write in a youthful and friendly tone, but with the incisive wisdom of elders. This book should certainly be a required read for any beginning researcher.
1221940
Scientific writing for students and young scientists by Prof. Orina  provides background information, which jump-starts the research exercise. The literature chapter is well elaborated as it provides a selective and critical survey of the written works of the subject to be studied. The book outlines how the problem must be clearly and conspicuously stated in just one paragraph. Overall the book provides background information, which can enable the reader to conclusively understand how to jump-starts the research exercise with a clear mental plan or contemplation on how to steer the research work.
4146550
I am a doctoral student and I found Patton's book to be a valuable resource for writing my research proposal. His writing is very clear with great examples.
2958619
I could not help but think of writing papers and doing research for grad school while reading this book. There is more than a little truth to the idea that research in academia is the creative connecting of various odd bits of information and that those who believe the end result are more than half crazy. Anyone who has begun a masters or doctorate program would do well to read this book.
2796652
This academic publication consists of a collection of essays and surveys conducted by accredited scholars in their respective fields. It should however, come as no surprise that its intended audience is quite limited. The book is not intended for the layperson and may come off a bit too technical. That aside, I was extremely pleased with this title. It served me well in my research. The way in which it was organized made it possible to reference the desired materials without headache or concern. Most importantly, the research is up-to-date.
3996966
This book is great. As a graduate student in the social sciences, I have heard about all these methods before and have taken plenty of statistics and methodology classes but hadn't yet put all the pieces together in my head on causal inference. Murnane and Willet do an awesome job explaining how all the pieces fit together, in an intuitive and non-technical way (likely accessible to those who have taken basic statistics through regression). The examples are well-chosen to illustrate the pros and cons of the methods they discuss. The quality of the writing in this book is really excellent. I really just want to finish it all in one sitting, but I have to stop (I have only read the first five chapters so far) to work on my dissertation and fulfill other commitments. I wish I had read this book long ago (preferably before I started on my dissertation). Take my advice, don't wait on this one. So, Murnane and Willett, if your busy lives don't prevent you from stopping by Amazon from time to time to check out the reviews of your book, I want to say THANK YOU for all your work on this and hopefully this will push social scientists towards higher quality research and ultimately better public policies!
1014881
If you have any interest in tour guiding as a field of research, this is the right and unavoidable book for you. The authors approached the chosen topic very seriously, both analytically and synthetically. They thoroughly analyzed a great deal of journal articles, books, chapters in books, contributions to conferences and dissertations published in English language, which in itself was a huge task.
In addition, tour guiding represents an extremely wide-ranging activity in terms of disciplinary contribution required to understand it: the subject matter does not fit into any particular traditional discipline and it is approached multidisciplinary (business/management, sociology, psychology, anthropology, human geography, communication, law, etc.). So, it was not easy at all to read let alone analyze such a variety of scientific and professional writings and this is why the authors deserve a special praise. All in all, "Tour Guiding Research" represents the best and most comprehensive overview and analysis of academic literature on tour guiding. We have lacked such a book!
3587375
I highly recommend this book to anyone engaged in research. The writing was clear, comprehensive and concrete and has truly guided my own work in the most profound way. I continually refer to "Reason & Rigor" at every stage of my research. Whether you are just starting out or are more seasoned, there is tremendous value in this book -- some of the best writing on the topic that I have come across in a long time.
205128
I was thoroughly pleased with the book as it was a huge help in my understanding the class assignment. This is a wonderful book by Nouwen.
1199161
This is very complete and easy to read and compile any research from; I was happy to have it for a class I taught.
3130437
Best compilation of research I've read! Fascinating!
615283
As a college professor, this book is fantastic. I had been doing many of these things already. This book gave me the research to help make learning processes even better for students.