Four research methods are widely employed in sociological investigation. A method is a strategy for carrying out research in a systematic way — comparable to a blueprint used in building or a recipe in cooking. The four methods discussed here are all expressions of the logic of science. They differ, however, in the specific ways in which observations are made and in the kinds of questions they help us answer. No method is in an absolute sense betteror worse than any other; each has characteristic strengths and weaknesses so that any method is particularly suited for certain kinds of research.