Humanities 254: Modern Cities (McCole)
HOW TO WRITE A (great) BOOK REVIEW
subject: Donald Olsen, The City as a Work of Art
length: 3-4 pages
due date: Tuesday, March 7
I. Reading
Before you write, think about how you are reading. Don’t be a passive
reader; be an active reader. Here are some suggestions for things to do and
think about
as you read.
--Always take notes as you read (not just afterward).
--Try to get inside the author’s argument, that is, inside his or her
way of thinking about a problem and presenting it.
--Figure out the author’s aims. Books are written for many different purposes.
Is this a piece of scholarly research? a political statement? a contribution
to public debate? an attempt to clarify some problem of the author’s?
or perhaps several of these things?
--Pay attention to language. Any author has a language or vocabulary of his
or her own. What terms are central to the argument? Is the author using those
terms
in a special way?
--Evidence. What kinds of evidence are used to make the argument?
--Think about the author’s context. What issues did the author have in
mind when writing the book? Introductions and prefaces are often good sources
of information on this. For instance, was the author trying to support or refute
other authors? To correct misconceptions, or to point out something that has
been missed? To make a political or moral point?
--Figure out the author’s underlying values. What are his or her assumptions
about human nature? About the purpose of society?
*II. The Basic Pieces: Your Assignment
A good book review will include these three elements:
1 A description of the author’s project. What was the author trying to
do? What was his or her aim in writing the book? How did she or he frame the
questions? How did she or he propose to get answers to them? In order to do justice
to a book, part of what you must do is to enter into the author’s project
and describe it for your audience. This does not necessarily mean that you take
the author’s approach or views as the last word on the subject (see point
three). But you must show that you understand what that approach was.
2 A synopsis. You should summarize the contents and the main findings of the
book. What is the book’s thesis--its main, central claim--and how does
the author make an argument for it? What kinds of evidence are used?
3 Critical evaluation. Be flexible in how you think about this! It may be that
you find a book either completely persuasive, or completely misguided. But
there are many possibilities in between. Perhaps it offers a partial perspective
on
a larger question. Perhaps it raises questions more than it provides answers,
by showing that the conventional wisdom won’t do yet leaving us unsure
what to put in its place. You will think of other possibilities. Think carefully
about the verdict you want to render. It’s very rare that a book merits
complete approval or complete dismissal. Avoid bland, unsupported judgments such
as “this was interesting” or “this was boring.”
III. Writing
Like any good piece of expository writing, your book review should have the
following qualities:
1 You should refer in detail to the author’s arguments. Don’t resort
to phrases like “I think” or “it seems to me.” You are
trying to reconstruct the core of the author’s argument. You should pay
attention to the language and the major steps with which the author makes his
or her case.
2 You should document your use of sources—in this case, the book you
are reviewing. Direct quotes should always be in quotation marks, and paraphrases
should be referenced as well. In this case, since your are reviewing only one
book, you may put page numbers in parentheses at the end of the sentence, and
give a full bibliographical citation at the beginning or end of the paper:
Author,
Title (Place of publication, date of publication). The title may be either
italicized or underlined. (The title of an article belongs in quotation marks.)
3 You should write well. That is, your style should be fluid, the grammar and
spelling should be correct.
4 Write a good introductory paragraph. Often this will be the last thing to
write—once
you know what you have said.
5 Proofread. Always proofread a paper and make corrections if necessary before
turning it in.