The Practice of Social Research (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac) (Practice of Social Research) Description:

The Practice of Social Research (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac) (Practice of Social Research) review:
4 stars (Textbook) - I use this for my text for an upper division Soc class - is a good book - easy to read - wish I had the CD!
5 stars (Fast, Accurate and Great Condition) - I was skeptical when the description said they ship same day but took the chance because I had waited till the last minute to order my books. I placed the order Monday morning and received the book Wednesday just in time for class!!! Thank you for the fast delivery with no extra charge to me!!! And of course as promised the book was in excellent condition and everyone in class was jealous because I paid less and got better service then most of them!!!!
2 stars (Babbie is a textbook machine, not a researcher) - I have taught a survey research course for 3 semesters and used this book because it was recommended. If you want to teach a course in overall research methods, this may be your book. If you want to teach survey research, use something else. Too much of the book focuses on qualitative methods. In addition, some of his information is simply off-base. His discussion of the reasons for using stratified sampling is particularly erroneous. In addition, the research he uses as examples (research he has conducted) was done 20 years ago and is neither interesting nor enlightening. In addition to the problems with the text book, the publishing company is not terribly helpful. I had to hound them to get desk copies and a test bank. They never did send me a copy of the study guide. It seems as though Earl Babbie writes text books to make money, not because he is a researcher with an abundance of information to share with the world. If you want an introductory level book on survey research, use Czaja and Blair (Pine Forge Press), Fowler (Sage) or another book written by people who actually do survey research.The one positive thing I can say is that his workbooks on how to use SPSS are pretty good.