What are the three "R"s of inquiry and why does the author find these
so important?

The three "R"s of inquiry are reading, writing, and research. The author, Raymond G. McInnie finds these skills very important and believes teachers should teach their students how to do these skills so
that they will not be afraid of research and not be insecure to learn.
McInnie says that it is more important to "know how" than to just simply "know that".When you feed students information they are going to "know that" about whatever piece of information they have been
given. However, when you make students "know how" they must be able to formulate the problem into an answerable question, choose the appropriate evidence, and so forth. Researching is an activity in which one must "know how" and not just "know that". In order to research, it is necessary to read (achieve understanding) and write (recording the data).
Therefore McInnie says that it is important for students to be able to do these three tasks because it makes them actually think and "know how". Most students "pile up information" that is given to them and then, unfortunately, have trouble "sorting it out" and making use of the information. It is necessary for students to not expect to have the information given to them. They need to be able to examine the evidence on their own & come up with an answer without someone simply straight out providing the answer. The three "R"s of inquiry is how they can do this; that is why McInnit believes they are so important.