This book provides social science majors with a systematic way of learning to write in their fields. It is based
on the assumption that such writing is not a mechanical process, but a kind of rhetoric social scientists use to
persuade each other of the validity of their research.
Features comprehensive coverage of research methods, including how to plan and propose original research, how
to gather data or evidence from sources and how to document it. It goes beyond the typical survey of library tools
and offers a brief chapter on how to use the Internet as a research tool.
Table of Contents
I. RHETORIC AND COMPOSING.
1. Rhetoric and the Social Sciences.
2. The Individual and Social Dimensions of Composing.
II. CREATING AND WRITING ABOUT NEW KNOWLEDGE.
3. Research Methods, Writing, and Ethics.
4. Interpreting Documents.
5. Interviewing.
6. Observing.
7. Surveying.
8. Experimenting.
III. FINDING AND USING EXISTING KNOWLEDGE.
9. Library Research and Writing.
10. Using the Internet as a Scholarly Resource.
IV. COMMON SOCIAL SCIENCE GENRES.
11. Proposals and Prospectuses.
12. Public Position Papers and Opinion Pieces.
13. Abstracts, Critiques, and Reviews.
