ABSTRACT
The purpose of this handbook is to help you take and keep hold of the major concepts, principles, and steps of the research process using social work as context. Many, many research books are on the shelves today, most of them hundreds of pages and thousands of words. Many of them are very good. They speak to all of the issues, from thinking about what to study (problem formulation) and why it should be studied (professional significance) to different ways of inquiring (design and methodology) to discussing what you found (analysis and dissemination of results). Usually included throughout those discussions is special attention to ethics, both conceptually and methodologically. In other words, lots of material is covered in one place, and it can be difficult to pick out from all the narrative, details, and examples those points that either must be kept in mind or need to be understood in order to move from one methodological step to the next.
