Writing for Social Scientists Quotes

“Outlines can help, but not if you begin with them. If you begin, instead, by writing down everything, by spewing out your ideas as fast as you can type, you will discover the answer to the first question: the fragments you have to work with are the various things you have just written.”
― Howard S. Becker, Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article

“None of these classy locutions mean anything different from the simpler ones they replace. They work ceremonially, not semantically. Writing in a classy way to sound smart means writing to sound like, maybe even be, a certain kind of person. Sociologists, and other scholars, do that because they think (or hope) that being the right kind of person will persuade others to accept what they say as a persuasive social science argument.”
― Howard S. Becker, Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article

“write whatever comes into your head, as fast as you can type, without reference to outlines, notes, data, books or any other aids. The object is to find out what you would like to say, what all your earlier work on the topic or project has already led you to believe.”
― Howard S. Becker, Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article

“Muazzam başeserler yazmaya mı çalışmalıyız; yoksa söylenmesi gereken şeyi ikna edici bir şekilde söyle- yen, eli yüzü düzgün, açık ve anlaşılır bir üslubu hedeflesek mi daha iyi olur? Bilimin, üslup konusunda iddialı olan başeserle- re ihtiyacı var midır? Biraz daha yakından bakarsak bu hevesin gösteriş merakından başka bir şey olmadığını görürüz. - s170”
― Howard S. Becker, Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article