Students in this course will be required to write a 3 to 4 page book review of Creating A Female Dominion in American Reform. Book reviews must be double spaced.
.In writing the review, keep summarization to a minimum. Also, avoid narration (re-telling the story). A book review requires that you provide a critical analysis of the book. In order to do this, you must accurately identify the central argument of the book. The central argument is what the author seeks to prove in writing the book. After stating the central argument, the remainder of the review ought to be devoted to an analysis of how and how well the author makes the central argument.
Note: In writing the review, assume that your reader has not read the book.
To analyze the book and write the review, ask yourself the following questions:
What evidence does the author use to support the argument?
How well does the author interpret the evidence?
How well does the author support the argument?
What issues, if any, need further clarification or more attention?
Does the author ignore issues or evidence that might be used to make a different kind of argument?
How is the book organized/structured? In other words, what kind of order does the author impose on the evidence?
What does the organizational structure of the book convey about the thought process of the author?
What are the dynamic factors of the book? In other words, how does the author account for change over time? What, according to the author, makes things happen?
Is the book useful in helping to explain the past? Why or why not?
Does the author exhibit any particular bias?
Was the author influenced by the period in which he or she wrote the book? Did the issues or concerns of the period in which the book was written influence the authors interpretation of the past?
Note: I do not expect you to answer each and every one of the eleven questions listed above. I offer these questions merely as guides to thought with the intent of helping you think analytically.
I also recommend that you ask another person to read your review before you submit it for a grade. A second reader will almost always help you catch grammatical and spelling errors, improve clarity of expression and organizational structure, and ground errant ideas.
Your grade on the book review will be determined primarily by how accurately you identify the central argument, the quality of your analysis, and clarity of expression. However, grammar and spelling will also be factors in determining the grade.
Quotes: If you choose to quote from the book under review, you must use quotation marks, which tells the reader that you are not using your own words. Using the words of another person without quotation marks will be treated as a case of plagiarism. See the Policy Matters section (below) regarding the penalty for plagiarism.
Citations: If you quote from the book under review, you must indicate the page or pages where the quoted line or passage appears in the book. Place the page number(s) in parenthesis at the end of the sentence in which the quoted line or passage appears. Place the period (or other punctuation) ending the sentence after the parenthesis. Use block quotes for passages that extend beyond four lines.
For the book review, you are not required to read anything other than the assigned book. If you choose to quote from some source other than the book under review, you must put the quoted material in quotation marks and cite the source using an endnote or a footnote.
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