The Craft of Research: Chapter Four "From Questions to a Problem"
"In academic research, a problem is something we seek out, even invent if we have to"(Booth 54).
"It’s not you who judges the significance of your problem by the cost you pay, but your readers who judge it by the cost they pay if you don’t solve it. So what you think is a problem, they might not. To make your problem their problem, you must frame it from their point of view, so that they see its costs to them. To do that, imagine that when you pose the condition part of your problem, your reader responds, So what?" (Booth 55).
"In academic research . . . your problems will usually be conceptual ones, which are harder to grasp because both their conditions and costs are not palpable but abstract" (Booth 56).
"You can identify the condition of a conceptual problem by completing that three- step sentence (3.4): The first step is I am studying / working on the topic of ________. In the second step, the indirect question states the condition of a conceptual problem, what you do not know or understand:
I am studying stories of the Alamo, because I want to understand why voters responded to them in ways that served the interests of Texas politicians" (Booth 56).
"The consequence of a conceptual problem is a second thing that we don’t know or understand because we don’t understand the first one, and that is more significant, more consequential than the first. You express that bigger lack of understanding in the indirect question in step 3 of that formula:
I am studying stories of the Alamo, because I want to understand why voters responded to them in ways that served the interests of local Texas politicians, in order to help readers understand the bigger and more important question of how regional self- images influence national politics" (Booth 57).
"Get control over your topic by writing about it along the way. Don’t just retype or photocopy sources: write summaries, critiques, questions, responses to your sources. Keep a journal in which you reflect on your progress. The more you write, no matter how sketchily, the more confidently you will face that intimidating first draft" (Booth 66).
"It’s not you who judges the significance of your problem by the cost you pay, but your readers who judge it by the cost they pay if you don’t solve it. So what you think is a problem, they might not. To make your problem their problem, you must frame it from their point of view, so that they see its costs to them. To do that, imagine that when you pose the condition part of your problem, your reader responds, So what?" (Booth 55).
"In academic research . . . your problems will usually be conceptual ones, which are harder to grasp because both their conditions and costs are not palpable but abstract" (Booth 56).
"You can identify the condition of a conceptual problem by completing that three- step sentence (3.4): The first step is I am studying / working on the topic of ________. In the second step, the indirect question states the condition of a conceptual problem, what you do not know or understand:
I am studying stories of the Alamo, because I want to understand why voters responded to them in ways that served the interests of Texas politicians" (Booth 56).
"The consequence of a conceptual problem is a second thing that we don’t know or understand because we don’t understand the first one, and that is more significant, more consequential than the first. You express that bigger lack of understanding in the indirect question in step 3 of that formula:
I am studying stories of the Alamo, because I want to understand why voters responded to them in ways that served the interests of local Texas politicians, in order to help readers understand the bigger and more important question of how regional self- images influence national politics" (Booth 57).
"Get control over your topic by writing about it along the way. Don’t just retype or photocopy sources: write summaries, critiques, questions, responses to your sources. Keep a journal in which you reflect on your progress. The more you write, no matter how sketchily, the more confidently you will face that intimidating first draft" (Booth 66).
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