v. 4

In recent years, social scientists have - in common with many disciplines - become increasingly interested in the "rhetoric of inquiry". Sociologists and anthropolgists have become preoccupied with the analysis of the texts of their respective disciplines. It is recognized that social scientists construct and interpret representations of the social world. Moreover there is widespread recognition that the characteristics of each discipline are - in part - describable in terms of the distinctive conventions of a given genre. Consequently, the intellectual work of being a social scientist is - in large measure - predicated on conventions of reading and writing. This volume brings together a collection of important essays in the general area of sociological texts, and the conventional practices of reading and writing.