(1) Context.
(2) Data gathering.
(3) Analysis and assurance.

Context
Using the books mentioned in this guide you should learn how to frame a problem or argument, separate fact from fallacy, validate sources, and present findings or well-reasoned and logical opinions.

The books cited are not necessarily the best available - just the ones that have greatly influenced me and have become personal favorites.

Data Gathering
Regardless of the trigger that starts you on a quest for data - verbal or Internet discussion, book, TV or radio - the data you gather is typically for the purpose of educating, supporting a point, persuading or refuting. Before the data can be turned into usable information and presented, the right data needs to be gathered.

My favorite book on data gathering is 'Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design'. Yes, it's an IT book, but the content is generic enough to apply to any situation. The author, Gerald M. Weinberg, has also written a book titled 'An Introduction to General Systems Thinking' that is a perfect companion. This book also introduces systems thinking, which includes clear guidelines and a methodology for gathering the right data. WHile Weinburg's book on systems thinking is excellent, the book on this subject that has most greatly influenced me is 'Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity : A Platform for Designing Business Architecture'. Don't let the title deter you from reading this book - it is general enough to apply to any industry or endeavor. The following two comments about this book will illustrate this:
- Counter-intuitiveness in social dynamics is illustrated with a cause and effect diagram that clearly shows counterintuitive behavior in a welfare system. The diagram shows how a program designed to reduce the number of poor families can actually cause the opposite effect.

- A side story about a birth control project in India illustrates perceptual differences between and among cultures and deeply influenced my own perceptual awareness. The synopsis of this story is the foundation team who was trying to teach birth control gave an incentive in the form of a free transistor radio to anyone who attended their educational lectures. Despite their best efforts the birth rate remained at a steady average of 4.6 per family. This unchanging fact was a source of great dismay and perplexity to the team of Americans who were about to deem the project a failure. Fortunately they dug deeper into the causes and discovered that in India there are no retirement benefits, social security or unemployment benefits. The retirement system is based on three sons. It takes an average of 4.6 births to produce three sons, so the mystery was solved. This short story was used to reinforce a triad of factors that support decision making: cultural, emotional and rational. We tend to examine the rational, which represents only one third of what needs to be considered. The rest of this book contains the same deep insights throughout and gives you the tools and approach to untie that Gordian Knot.

Analysis and Assurance
Once you've gathered the 'right' data you need to turn it into verified, validated information. One outstanding book that covers this process is 'Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving'. This book isn't as much about numbers as it is about how to think. In fact, numbers aren't introduced until chapter 27, which is exactly midway through the book. The author, Jonathan Koomey, skillfully leads you through the process of learning to think critically, probe, question and analyze. Along the way he helps you to develop a mindset and collection of tools and techniques, which prepare you for the second half of the book that does cover numbers and how to interpret them, transform them into knowledge, and use them to solve problems. This 221 page book is a masterpiece because it's clearly written, offers sage advice and contains easy to perform--yet powerful--exercises throughout.

Other books I particularly like include 'What the Numbers Say: A Field Guide to Mastering Our Numerical World', 'Lies We Live By : Defeating Doubletalk and Deception in Advertising, Politics, and the Media', 'Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (6th Edition)', and 'Attacking Faulty Reasoning : A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments'. Of course, there are tools and resources on the world wide web, such as 'Propaganda Critic' and 'Thinking Page: Better Thinking Using Systems Thinking, Creativity, Cybernetics,' that augment these books. Each of these sites contain links to still other sites, and by the time you've played the '6 degrees of separation' game, you will have come full circle to data gathering.

In addition, 'The Warning Solution : Intelligent Analysis in the Age of Information Overload' covers analysis in great detail. There are tools that help in the analysis, and one of the best is 'The Thinker's Toolkit : Fourteen Skills for Making Smarter Decisions in Business and in Life'. I happen to also like 'Thinking Visually: Business Applications of 14 Core Diagrams' (another book with a narrow title, but covers a much wider, general scope of uses). You can also reverse-engineer your analysis by using the approach in a highly readable book titled 'How to Lie With Statistics'.

If you're using this approach to write a paper, one resource I keep nearby is 'Information Graphics : A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference '. This book contains 450 pages (4,000 illustrations), each of which shows how to best graphically depict data and information. Moreover, if you are using Excel and PowerPoint to create tabular and graphical representations of your findings I strongly recommend that you get a copy of 'Show Me the Numbers : Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten'. This amazing book will show you how (and how not) to present your data in the most optimal form.

End Note
As you examine the books I've cited you're sure to see more related ones on the product pages. Some of those may be more to your liking than the ones I've cited - carefully read the reviews, tables of contents and other material that will help you to decide which book(s) are right for you.