The Review of Higher Education

Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams propose an ambitious agenda in their preface: to help

all researchers, not just first-year undergraduates and advanced graduate students, but even those in business and government who do and report research on any topic, academic, political, or commercial . . . to transform a topic into a significant research problem, organize a research report, and write it so that readers will understand it. .

(p. xi)

I admit my skepticism, at that point, about whether any single volume could accomplish so much for so many. The purpose of this review is to explore the extent to which the book delivers on this aim and how it might be useful to the Review of Higher Education readership.

Surprisingly, the authors do deliver by focusing on the conceptual work that grounds research and writing, clearly articulating the complexity of these processes, and blending practical advice with this conceptual foundation. Thus, the authors’ description of the journey from posing research questions to revising research reports gets at the heart of thinking carefully about any research question. Because the book focuses on the core conceptualization of research, it is not limited to any particular methodology or method. Similarly, it is relevant across diverse higher education contexts and for both novice and veteran researchers. It is a valuable resource for readers of Review of Higher Education because it helps refine their thinking, consider their audiences as partners, and potentially expand the reach of their research efforts as a result.

The authors offer a complex, yet accessible, guide to conducting and reporting research that is valuable to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and professional staff. The authors frame research as a craft—an art form—based on sound thinking and collaboration with readers to explore reasonable solutions to shared problems. They carefully blend this conceptual foundation with practical advice and show how practical “formulas” are tools for thinking.

In Part 1, the authors lay out their view of research as “gather[ing] information to answer a question that solves a problem” (p. 10). This definition invites readers to think of research in ways that contribute to solving real-world problems. The authors then emphasize writing up research as an important way to engage others in thinking about solving problems. In doing so they set the stage for their view of writing as engaging readers in a conversation about the problems at hand.

Booth, Colomb, and Williams articulate useful schemas to guide thinking throughout research and writing processes. For example, in Part 2, which guides the reader from ascertaining questions from topics through active engagement with sources to learn more about the questions, [End Page 284] the authors provide a key framework for staying focused on the significance of a research question: “I am studying [x] . . . because I want to find out what/why/how [y] . . . in order to help my reader understand [z]” (p. 51). This three-step formula is a “tool for thinking” (p. 244) complexly about the enterprise of research.

Similarly, the authors offer a more complex structure to organize an argument as a conversation: “you make a claim, back it with reasons, support them with evidence, acknowledge and respond to other views, and sometimes explain your principles of reasoning” (p. 108; emphasis theirs). This advice is a tool for researchers and writers to carefully reflect on their views, consider why they hold them, acknowledge competing views, and identify the values that ground their thinking.

Part 3 develops this structure in detail. Even systems to organize writing, such as the three elements of an introduction: “contextualizing background, statement of the problem, [and] response to the problem” (p. 234), are simultaneously ways to think carefully about arguments.

Part 4 walks the reader through planning, drafting, and revising research reports. The schemas throughout the book are practical yet they convey the complexity of thinking through claims, evidence, and communicating with a community of readers. Using these schemas enhances the rigor of generating and disseminating...