The Craft of Research, Fifth Edition

“While the underlying principles of research have changed little, its related sources, processes, and applications have changed significantly since the 1995 publication of this book’s classic first edition. Even since the fourth edition (2016), a greater variety of tools—such as generative artificial intelligence—and methodologies have emerged. Changes in this book’s edition reflect the authors’ responses to these advances and changing attitudes; for example, the purposes, genres, and formats of research products have expanded. The growing recognition of collective intelligence and the need for sound argumentation are also addressed in this edition. What has not changed is the authors’ overall approach to research: as a conceptual framework with generic practical advice.” * Booklist *

Wayne C. Booth (1921–2005) was the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. His many books include The Rhetoric of Fiction and For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals.

Gregory G. Colomb (1951–2011) was professor of English at the University of Virginia and the author of Designs on Truth: The Poetics of the Augustan Mock-Epic.

Joseph M. Williams (1933–2008) was professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago and the author of Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace.

Joseph Bizup is associate professor in the Department of English at Boston University. He revised the last three editions of Williams’s Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace.

William T. FitzGerald is associate professor in the Department of English and Communication at Rutgers University–Camden and has published widely on writing and research, the rhetoric of prayer, and style.