Real Research: Conducting and Evaluating Research in the Social Sciences

by Loreen Wolfer

Covering both quantitative and qualitative research, this new text teaches the skills for conducting research and how to read and evaluate published research.
Real Research explains the systematic steps used by social scientists to examine the social world, and teaches te skills necessary to read, understand and realistically evaluate published research carried out by others. The author follows the stages of the research process and presents a model of "ideal" research; but she also emphasizes that research does not always involve an orderly set of steps, and is often affected by limitations such as time and money.

Genres: Textbooks

1312 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2006

Reviews

[Emily]

Like most textbooks, I didn’t read every word of this, but it was the main text for a research and assessment class I took this semester (still not sure why it’s required for my MLIS), so I did spend a lot of time with it.
I’m not sure how much a review will benefit anyone, since people don’t generally go out and buy textbooks for kicks, but maybe it will provide some poor student reassurance that it’s a decent textbook. It’s not incomprehensible and dry, the tone is friendly, and the explanations are clear, with lots of examples. I could imagine worse ways to learn about this biz. This edition is dated in some ways—descriptions of technology and vocabulary regarding gender—but otherwise, as an introduction to sociological research, it’s pretty good. It seemed that way to me, anyway, although the statistical stuff was hard. The prof for my class seemed to have more confidence in the chapters on quantitative research than the ones on qualitative.
So if you find yourself commanded to buy/rent/borrow this book, and you’re weirdly looking up reviews of it on Goodreads...fear not, dear student. It will be OK.

[Rob Green]

One of the better social research textbooks I've read; the conversational, personal style and many practical examples helped to bring the concepts to life. This is a keeper for my reference shelf.

[fc7reads]

This book was required reading for a class. Had that not been the case, I would never have chosen to read this book. While there is quite a bit of good information contained in this book, the author is not a particularly skillful or clear writer. For example, the author often says she will "briefly" describe a given concept and then provides two (or more!) pages of text. Additionally, there are MANY typos -- some of which have the potential to derail a reader's understanding of the material. For these reasons, I have suggested to the Program Director that another textbook be selected for the course.