C o n t e n t s Preface xi I R E S E A R C H , R E S E A R C H E R S , AND R E A D E R S 1 P R O LO GU E : S T A R T I NG A R E S E A R C H P R O J E C T 3 1 Thinking in Print: The Uses of Research, Public and Private 9 1.1 What Is Research? 10 1.

2 Why Write It Up? 12 1.3 Why a Formal Report? 13 1.4 Conclusion 15 2 Connecting with Your Reader: (Re)Creating Your Self and Your Audience 17 2.1 Creating Roles for Writers and Readers 17 2.2 Creating a Relationship with Your Reader: Your Role 19 2.3 Creating the Other Half of the Relationship: The Reader s Role 22 2.4 Writing in Groups 26 2.5 Managing the Unavoidable Problem of Inexperience 30 ? Quick Tip: A Checklist for Understanding Your Readers 32 II A S K I N G Q U E S T I O N S , F I N D I N G A N S W E R S 35 P R O LO GU E : P L AN NI N G YO UR P R O J E C T 37 3 From Topics to Questions 40 3.1 From an Interest to a Topic 41 v vi c o n t e n t s 3.2 From a Broad Topic to a Focused One 43 3.3 From a Focused Topic to Questions 45 3.4 From a Merely Interesting Question to Its Wider Significance 49 ? Quick Tip: Finding Topics 53 4 From Questions to Problems 56 4.1 Problems, Problems, Problems 57 4.2 The Common Structure of Problems 60 4.3 Finding a Good Research Problem 68 4.4 Summary: The Problem of the Problem 70 ? Quick Tip: Disagreeing with Your Sources 72 5 From Problems to Sources 75 5.1 Screening Sources for Reliability 76 5.2 Locating Printed and Recorded Sources 79 5.3 Finding Sources on the Internet 83 5.4 Gathering Data Directly from People 85 5.5 Bibliographic Trails 88 5.6 What You Find 88 6 Using Sources 90 6.1 Three Uses for Sources 91 6.2 Reading Generously but Critically 95 6.3 Preserving What You Find 96 6.4 Getting Help 104 ? Quick Tip: Speedy Reading 106 III MA K I N G A C L A I M AND S U P P O R T I N G I T 109 P R O LO GU E : P U L L IN G T O G E T H E R Y O U R A R G U M E N T 111 7 Making Good Arguments: An Overview 114 7.1 Argument and Conversation 114 7.2 Basing Claims on Reasons 116 7.3 Basing Reasons on Evidence 117 7.4 Acknowledging and Responding to Alternatives 118 7.5 Warranting the Relevance of Reasons 119 7.6 Building Complex Arguments Out of Simple Ones 121 Contents vii 7.7 Arguments and Your Ethos 122 ? Quick Tip: Designing Arguments Not for Yourself but for Your Readers: Two Common Pitfalls 124 8 Claims 127

8.1 What Kind of Claim? 127 8.2 Evaluating Your Claim 129 ? Quick Tip: Qualifying Claims to Enhance Your Credibility 135 9 Reasons and Evidence 138 9.1 Using Reasons to Plan Your Argument 138 9.2 The Slippery Distinction between Reasons and Evidence 140 9.3 Evidence vs. Reports of Evidence 142 9.4 Selecting the Right Form for Reporting Evidence 144 9.5 Reliable Evidence 145 ? Quick Tip: Showing the Relevance of Evidence 149 10 Acknowledgments and Responses 151 10.1 Questioning Your Argument 152 10.2 Finding Alternatives to Your Argument 154 10.3 Deciding What to Acknowledge 157 10.4 Responses as Subordinate Arguments 159 ? Quick Tip: The Vocabulary of Acknowledgment and Response 161 11 Warrants 165 11.1 How Warrants Work 166 11.2 What Warrants Look Like 168 11.3 Knowing When to State a Warrant 168 11.4 Testing Your Warrants 170 11.5 Challenging the Warrants of Others 177 ? Quick Tip: Some Strategies for Challenging Warrants 179 IV P R E P A R I N G T O D R A F T , DR A F T I N G , AND R E V I S I N G 183 P R O LO GU E : P L AN NI N G A G A I N 185 ? Quick Tip: Outlining 187 12 Planning and Drafting 189 12.1 Preliminaries to Drafting 189 viii c o n t e n t s 12.2 Planning: Four Traps to Avoid 191 12.3 A Plan for Drafting 193 12.4 The Pitfall to Avoid at All Costs: Plagiarism 201 12.5 The Next Step 204 ? Quick Tip: Using Quotation and Paraphrase 205 13 Revising Your Organization and Argument 208 13.1 Thinking Like a Reader 209 13.2 Analyzing and Revising Your Overall Organization 209 13.3 Revising Your Argument 216 13.4 The Last Step 218 ? Quick Tip: Titles and Abstracts 219 14 Introductions and Conclusions 222 14.1 The Three Elements of an Introduction 222 14.2 Establishing Common Ground 225 14.3 Stating Your Problem 228 14.4 Stating Your Response 232 14.5 Fast or Slow? 234 14.6 Organizing the Whole Introduction 235 14.7 Conclusions 236 ? Quick Tip: Opening and Closing Words 238 15 Communicating Evidence Visually 241 15.1 Visual or Verbal? 244 15.2 Tables vs. Figures 244 15.3 Constructing Tables 245 15.4 Constructing Figures 248 15.5 Visual Communication and Ethics 260 15.6 Using Graphics as an Aid to Thinking 261 16 Revising Style: Telling Your Story Clearly 263 16.1 Judging Style 263 16.2 A First Principle: Stories and Grammar 265 16.3 A Second Principle: Old Before New 274

16.4 Choosing between Active and Passive 275 16.5 A Final Principle: Complexity Last 277 Contents ix 16.6 Spit and Polish 280 ? Quick Tip: The Quickest Revision 281 V SOME L A S T C O N S I D E R A T I O N S 283 The Ethics of Research 285 A Postscript for Teachers 289 An Appendix on Finding Sources 297 General Sources 298 Special Sources 299 A Note on Some of Our Sources 317 Index 325