As Ann Blakeslee and Cathy Fleischer point out in their introductory chapter, many people do not consider themselves researchers, yet they find themselves doing research for a variety of reasons. This book is intended to help novice researchers-such as graduate students who need to write a thesis or other professionals who are tasked with leading an in-house research project-to design and complete a large project. The authors are experienced researchers in scientific and technical communication (Blakeslee) and English education (Fleischer), and they direct MA students writing theses at Eastern Michigan University. As I think back to my own experience years ago of writing a thesis without much of an idea of how to do it, I see that this book would have helped me tremendously, had it been available. The chapters contain writing prompts to help readers focus their research interests and to identify particular challenges they will face with a particular project; these prompts could benefit students in a research class as well as individuals working independently. Sidebars contain practical examples of concepts from the text, including many from the authors' experiences as researchers.
展开▼
