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Reviews can consider books, articles, entire genres or fields of literature, architecture, art, fashion, restaurants, policies, exhibitions, performances, and many other forms. This handout will focus on book reviews. Above all, a review makes an argument. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary.
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A review (or “critique”) of a book or article is not primarily a summary. Rather, it analyses, comments on and evaluates the work. As a course assignment, it situates the work in the light of specific issues and theoretical concerns being discussed in the course. Your review should show that you can recognize arguments and engage in ...
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The basic tasks in a multi-book review are the same, but you also have to compare the books and consider their strengths and weaknesses in relation to each other. These essays are usually longer than a review of a single book. If you are reviewing a work of literature, review the work as you would a primary source on the period you're studying.
- Books as Tools
- What a Book Review Does
- Reviews as Evaluations
- Reviews in College: A Different Kind of Evaluation
- Reviews as Debates
- Writing a Book Review
- Questions to Answer Before Writing a Book Review
- The Shape of Your Review
- A STUDENT EXAMPLE FOR DISCUSSION
- Short Versus Long Reviews
Books are tools for communication between two minds. Through the words and pictures of a text, the writer wants to do something to or for the reader. The reader is or is not affected by the text, sometimes in the way the writer wanted and sometimes in a different way. A book reviewer, by sharing his or her reactions to a book, can let you know whet...
The way a review represents what a book does, evaluates how well the book does it, and responds co the challenge the book presents is best 'illustrated by a strong review written in reaction to a strong book. Randy Shilts's book on the AIDS epidemic, And the Band Played On, came out at the height of public controversy over how well the U.S. governm...
The most common type of review helps us decide whether or not to buy a book, watch a movie or television show, or purchase a product. Such reviews help us evaluate what we ought to pay attention to, spend time and energy on, pay money for. Some reviews do not pass judgment directly, but simply give information upon which we can base our own decisio...
The reviews you will most likely be assigned to write in college carry out a different kind of eva1uatioo. In most cases your reader, probably the instructor, will not be using the review to decide what to read. She or he will be looking instead for what value you found in the book and how carefully and critically you have read it. The instructor w...
The final judgment of the review of The Animal Rights Crusade is that the book opens a debate over animal rights disputes but does not yet engage in the debate. Often, however, scholarly reviewers go beyond objective evaluation to enter into lively discussion. They may directly follow up on the points made in a book and explore the broader implicat...
In order for you as a reviewer to write the fullest and most considered response to a book, your reading and thinking must go through several stages. The more questions of interest the book poses, the more time you should devote to developing your ideas before actually writing the review. When first reading a book for meaning, pay special attention...
What seems to be the author’s main purpose or point? Is this purpose aimed at any particular group of readers? What information or knowledge does the book convey? What personal or practical meaning does the book have for you? What are the most appropriate terms by which to evaluate the book? On the basis of the criteria you have just selected, how ...
Beyond a few items that must appear in a review, what you include and how you organize it is up to you. Many reviews, however, do follow one general pattern that includes all the important elements of a review. The required items are all a matter of common sense. The reader must know what book you are talking about, so head the review with a bibl...
In the following review Jess Hopkins, a college student pursuing environmental studies, considers the usefulness of the book Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, in helping her understand and respond to environmental dilemmas confronting the global community in the late twentieth century She finds that the book, by vice president Gor...
The middle-length review of five hundred to a thousand words, which we have been considering, is the most common kind in newspapers and magazines. It allows the reviewer room to present contents and reactions with substantial supporting examples and discussion. In any fewer words, the reviewer must get right to the core of the book's argument and t...
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A book review is a discussion that involves two components, summary and evaluation. Step One – Reading: Step Two – Organizing and Writing: How to Write a Book Review This is the most important step in writing a book review. As you read, keep a pencil in hand and mark key passages that you might quote or paraphrase later.
Avoid writing a research paper rather than a book review. Remember the goal is to review how the author(s)/editor(s) of a book interpreted an event/topic rather than presenting a research report on the topic yourself. Make sure to thoroughly read the book before writing your review. If you have not, it will come across in your writing.
Aug 2, 2019 · A book review is a multifaceted critical analysis of a book and an evaluation on the quality, value/meaning, significance, and contribution of the book to its own subject/field. It is not a report ...
