A UML Pattern Language

Description

Social scientists, whether earnest graduate students or tenured faculty members, clearly know the rules that govern good writing. But for some reason they choose to ignore those guidelines and churn out turgid, pompous, and obscure prose. Distinguished sociologist Howard S. Becker, true to his calling, looks for an explanation for this bizarre behavior not in the psyches of his colleagues but in the structure of his profession. In this highly personal and inspirational volume he considers academic writing as a social activity.

Both the means and the reasons for writing a thesis or article or book are socially structured by the organization of graduate study, the requirements for publication, and the conditions for promotion, and the pressures arising from these situations create the writing style so often lampooned and lamented. Drawing on his thirty-five years' experience as a researcher, writer, and teacher, Becker exposes the foibles of the academic profession to the light of sociological analysis and gentle humor. He also offers eminently useful suggestions for ways to make social scientists better and more productive writers. Among the topics discussed are how to overcome the paralyzing fears of chaos and ridicule that lead to writer's block; how to rewrite and revise, again and again; how to adopt a persona compatible with lucid prose; how to deal with that academic bugaboo, "the literature." There is also a chapter by Pamela Richards on the personal and professional risks involved in scholarly writing.

In recounting his own trials and errors Becker offers his readers not a model to be slavishly imitated but an example to inspire. Throughout, his focus is on the elusive work habits that contribute to good writing, not the more easily learned rules of grammar and punctuation. Although his examples are drawn from sociological literature, his conclusions apply to all fields of social science, and indeed to all areas of scholarly endeavor. The message is clear: you don't have to write like a social scientist to be one.

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Similar books

• 

  Object-oriented Modeling and Design

  By James Rumbaugh

  [ Harel - 88a ] D. Harel , H. Lachover , A. Naamad , A. Pnueli , M. Politi , R. Sherman , A. Shtul - Trauring . ... W. Reisig . Petri Nets : An Introduction . Berlin : Springer - Verlag , 1985 . [ Rumbaugh - 88 ] James Rumbaugh .

• 

  Extreme Programming Examined

  By Giancarlo Succi, Michele Marchesi

  It is an indicator for possible rescheduling between the baselines . It also helps us sort the story cards , which are on a finer - grained level . Does What With Whom / What Who What For How to Check Paul Bahr Implementation ...

• 

  Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture, Patterns for Concurrent and Networked Objects

  By Douglas C. Schmidt, Frank Buschmann

  About the Authors This book has been written by the award winning team responsible for the first POSA volume "A System of Patterns", joined in this volume by Douglas C. Schmidt from University of California, Irvine (UCI), USA.

• 

  Handbook of Relational Database Design

  By Candace C. Fleming, Barbara Von Halle

  This book provides a practical and proven approach to designing relational databases. It contains two complementary design methodologies: logical data modeling and relational database design. The design methodologies are independent...

• 

  Object-oriented Design Heuristics

  By Arthur J. Riel

  Upon completion of an object-oriented design, you are faced with a troubling question: "Is it good, bad, or somewhere in between?" Seasoned experts often answer this question by subjecting the...

• 

  Visual Modeling Technique: Object Technology Using Visual Programmimg

  By Daniel Tkach, Walter Fang, Andrew So

  This ground-breaking book describes the Visual Modelling Technique (VMT), a comprehensive methodology that integrates visual programming into the object-oriented application development life cycle. VMT expands the life cycle significantly by...

• 

  Conceptual Database Design: An Entity-relationship Approach

  By Shamkant B. Navathe, Stefano Ceri, Carlo Batini

  Conceptual database design; an introduction to database design; data modeling concepts; methodologies for conceptual design; view design; view integration; improving the quality of a database schema; schema documentation and maintenance;...

• 

  XML Processing with Python

  By Sean McGrath

  Python is the fastest, most productive tool for processing XML. This is the first book to cover XML development with Python, in-depth. XML expert Sean McGrath introduces each of Python's...

• 

  Introduction to Programming Using SML

  By Michael R. Hansen, Hans Rischel

  Based on Hanson and Rischel's introductory programming course in the Informatics Programme at the Technical University of Denmark, Using Standard ML (Meta Language) throughout, they bypass theory and customized or...

• 

  Designing Object-oriented User Interfaces

  By David Hunter Collins

  Collins presents a principled approach to designing user interfaces for systems built on modern hardware and software platforms. In the text, Collins defines object-oriented user interface, presents a methodology for...