Writing Research Papers in the Social Sciences

by James D. Lester, James D. Lester Jr.

Using the same step-by-step guidance that made Writing Research Papers 11e the definitive research paper guide, this text will enable students in the social science disciplines and in some freshman composition classes to create research papers that advance or defend a theory, offer a review of research methodology, or create a paper from their own empirical research using the APA style. Writing Research Papers in the Social Sciences provides sample papers demonstrating the rules of documentation as well as the writing style for the social sciences while detailing the uses of new computer technologies students are using today.

Paperback

Published January 6, 2006

Reviews

[Maggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The school where I teach requires this book for its Writing for the Social Sciences course. I think the only reason it's so widely used is because it's literally the only option for courses like the one I've taught. It wastes too much time on fundamentals that students should have learned in a first-year composition course, and it oversimplifies too much of the research and writing process. The APA style information is outdated, as is the information about internet research. While a new edition could update some of these things, it can't fix the major problems with regard to audience and purpose.

Most students come into a writing-intensive course or a writing in the disciplines course thinking that research is boring. It's something instructors have to fight every semester, and I don't think this textbook does much to help them win that fight. My students hated this book. They felt like it was talking down to them and that they had to wade through too much basic information to get to the (brief) parts that could actually help them. A good writing textbook needs to meet students where they are and help them get to where they need to go. This book doesn't do that.

I'm giving it two stars only because it did spare me from having to gather all of this information on my own to prepare for lectures and class discussions, but it's a generous two stars.