Book Review Essay Guidelines
1. The Basics – What is this assignment?
Your main job in this assignment is to write a short, critical analysis of your selected supplementary book. By “critical analysis” I mean you should identify and describe the main argument(s) that your book’s author is trying to make, and not to merely tell me your opinion of the book. That being said, you should provide a brief summary of the book as well, and when doing so, be sure to tell me what the book is about – who it focuses on (and why), what period of history it is set in, and what the major events or turning points in the book are.
The point of this assignment is to help you develop the ability to take a significant amount of information (in this case, a full-length book), synthesize it with other information you have learned in class, and then condense the book and your overall analysis into a much more concise form. The ability to do so will serve you well in other courses here at Hunter College and beyond. Given the page limits (see below) you will not be able to tell me everything you read about the book or know from class; therefore this assignment also compels you to decide what the most important points your author is making are and how they relate to topics we have examined.
It should go without saying, but please note that your book review essay should not just be a summary of the book. A paper that consists solely of a book summary will receive a lower grade. Additionally, any plagiarized essay will automatically be given an “F.”
Please note that this is not a research paper; you are not expected to do any outside research for it (and will not be penalized if you don’t). If there is an outside source you would like to reference – a newspaper article or another book, perhaps – you are permitted to do so, but you should cite it clearly and properly using Chicago style citations, and you should try to be brief rather than expansive in your usage of any outside sources – remember, you only have a few pages to work with.
To recap – a successful essay will have three components in roughly equal balance:
• Identifies and describes the main arguments your book’s author(s) make(s)
• Provides a summary of the rest of the book (not more than one to one and a half pages)
• Explains how the book relates to themes and ideas we have discussed in class lecture or discussion.
2. Basic Paper Requirements
The basic requirements of this assignment are that you must write 4 to 5 FULL pages, double spaced, 12 point size font, Times New Roman, standard 1 inch margins). A FULL page means a page that is at least two-thirds filled – i.e. a paper that consists of two full pages and one sentence on the third page will not count as three pages. Failure to meet the length requirement for this assignment will negatively impact your grade, as will an excessively long paper.
Be sure to go to Turnitin.com and set up an account if you do not already have one. You must submit your paper electronically on Turnitin.com by 11:59pm on Friday, April 24th, in order for it to be considered on-time.
Please note that you are required to use Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) citation for your paper. A short guide to CMS has been posted under the “Course Materials” tab on our class Blackboard page.
3. How do I read a scholarly book?
Reading a scholarly book is a bit different from the traditional way most of us learned to read. When you pick up a scholarly book, you should try to read it in its entirety, but your emphasis should be on the preface and introduction (where the author will likely spell out what the subject or theme of her book is, what other authors have said about the same topic, and finally the argument she will be making in this book), the conclusion, and the sources (usually listed in the back of the book). When reading the main body of the book, pay attention to how the book is structured – how many chapters are there? How are the chapters arranged (Topically? Chronologically? Both?) Also, it is usually helpful to focus on the first and last sentences of each paragraph – that will tell you what main point the author is trying to make in each paragraph, and what conclusion she reaches.
