You may have written a book report in high school that was a simple summary of a book. OK, so that ensured (more or less) that you read the book but was pretty mindless and boring. That is NOT what this book review assignment is about.

The idea of a professional book review is to briefly summarize the ideas of the book, but mainly to give your opinion about the book’s merits – it is a critical analysis of the book. Just like in the literature critique assignment, ‘critical’ does not imply that you are going to be mean or harsh in your review. It means that you are going to evaluate objectively whether the author(s) have fulfilled their objectives in the book, and whether they have used persuasive and unbiased evidence to support their claims. Did you find the book engaging? Persuasive? Did you agree with it? Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it to others? What is the intended audience of the book? Does it succeed in reaching this audience?

Include:

1. The title and author of the book you are reviewing

2. The author’s objective(s) and audience

3. The author’s main arguments

4. Your evaluation of the author’s support of his arguments (provide examples)

5. Your evaluation of the author’s interpretation and success with his/her objectives in writing the book (provide examples)

6. Comparison with other books or sources if appropriate

7. Your conclusions about the book

8. Left and right margins should be 1.25”

9. Font should be Arial 12 pt.

10. Standard spacing (double space guidewords and single space body of book review)

Be sure to put any quotes from the book in quotation marks and to cite any sources used.

The ONLY books allowed are…NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!