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Evidence
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About this ebook
Howard S. Becker is a master of his discipline. His reputation as a teacher, as well as a sociologist, is supported by his best-selling quartet of sociological guidebooks: Writing for Social Scientists, Tricks of the Trade, Telling About Society, and What About Mozart? What About Murder? It turns out that the master sociologist has yet one more trick up his sleeve—a fifth guidebook, Evidence.
Becker has for seventy years been mulling over the problem of evidence. He argues that social scientists don’t take questions about the usefulness of their data as evidence for their ideas seriously enough. For example, researchers have long used the occupation of a person’s father as evidence of the family’s social class, but studies have shown this to be a flawed measure—for one thing, a lot of people answer that question too vaguely to make the reasoning plausible. The book is filled with examples like this, and Becker uses them to expose a series of errors, suggesting ways to avoid them, or even to turn them into research topics in their own right. He argues strongly that because no data-gathering method produces totally reliable information, a big part of the research job consists of getting rid of error. Readers will find Becker’s newest guidebook a valuable tool, useful for social scientists of every variety.
Becker has for seventy years been mulling over the problem of evidence. He argues that social scientists don’t take questions about the usefulness of their data as evidence for their ideas seriously enough. For example, researchers have long used the occupation of a person’s father as evidence of the family’s social class, but studies have shown this to be a flawed measure—for one thing, a lot of people answer that question too vaguely to make the reasoning plausible. The book is filled with examples like this, and Becker uses them to expose a series of errors, suggesting ways to avoid them, or even to turn them into research topics in their own right. He argues strongly that because no data-gathering method produces totally reliable information, a big part of the research job consists of getting rid of error. Readers will find Becker’s newest guidebook a valuable tool, useful for social scientists of every variety.
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Howard S. Becker
Howard S. Becker is author of many books including Telling About Society, Writing for Social Scientists, and Outsiders.
Read more from Howard S. Becker
Evidence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start & Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outsiders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Telling About Society Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Jack-Roller: A Delinquent Boy's Own Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming a Marihuana User Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What About Mozart? What About Murder?: Reasoning From Cases Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThere Was a Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream (revised and updated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Do You Know...?": The Jazz Repertoire in Action Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Art Worlds, 25th Anniversary Edition: 25th Anniversary edition, Updated and Expanded Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5On Becoming a Rock Musician Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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