Book excerpt: Essentials of Research Methods is a concise and accessible introduction to research methods in the social sciences. Written by an expert of research methods teaching, this book takes extraordinary care to focus the reader on experiences in his or her everyday life as a way of understanding and performing research methods. Introduces students to research methods with clear, concise, and accessible prose. Focuses the reader on everyday life as a way to understand research methods. Covers ethics, data gathering and analysis, and statistics. Includes further reading lists, graphs, exercises, study questions, a glossary, and an annotated list of web resources.