Tricks of the trade cover

Tricks of the trade

by Howard Saul Becker

Tricks of the Trade will help students think about research projects. Assisted by Becker's sound advice, students will be able to make better sense of their research and simultaneously generate fresh ideas on where to look next for new data. Becker's tricks cover four broad areas of social science: The creation of the "imagery" to guide research; methods of "sampling" to generate maximum variety in the data, the development of "concepts" to organize findings, and the use of "logical" methods to explore systematically the implications of what is found. Becker's advice ranges from simple suggestions such as changing an interview question from "Why?" to "How?" (as a way of getting people to talk without asking for justification) to more technical advice such as how to manipulate truth tables.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?