Effective Writing for Sociology: A Guide for Researchers and Students

Writing well is an essential skill for sociologists, but few books help students learn to write well. Designed to help students produce a manuscript that is clear, concise, and compelling, Effective Writing for Sociology demonstrates and deconstructs what makes effective writing and how best to communicate scholarly ideas.

The first half of the book addresses the fundamentals of good writing: writing clearly, conveying emphasis, writing concisely, and crafting effective paragraphs. The second half then looks to the three most important sections of a research report: framing an introduction, reporting results, and discussing findings. Each chapter of the book describes strategies for effective writing, illustrated with multiple examples and providing exercises where students can try their hand at implementing these strategies. The Epilogue provides tips on choosing a title as well as writing an abstract and method section; it also includes suggestions on how to master the tips described in the lessons.

Ben Lennox Kail and Robert V. Kail’s book is essential reading in courses on research methods, qualitative methods, quantitative methods, sociological writing, and social science writing in allied disciplines such as education, criminology, health, and all research fields.

Ben Lennox Kail is an Associate Professor in Sociology at Georgia Stata University. He earned his undergraduate degree in Sociology at IUPUI and did his graduate studies in sociology at Florida State University. After completing his PhD, he spent two years as a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University in the demography of aging. Since 2015, he has been an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. He has written 28 peer reviewed papers, as well as several other published papers, chapters, and reports. His research has been featured in various media outlets including local affiliates of Fox, NPR, CBS, as well as nationally on Today and in the New York Times.

Robert V. Kail is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University and Visiting Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. His undergraduate degree is from Ohio Wesleyan University, and his PhD is from the University of Michigan. He was named the Distinguished Sesquicentennial Alumnus in Psychology by Ohio Wesleyan University, is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and is an honorary professor at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.