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.