Reference no: EM132639291 , Length: 4

The Book Review must be 3-4 pages and focus on the author's argument in support of his or her thesis.

Use parenthetical citations when citing material from the book. Due to the succinct nature of book reviews, footnotes are not used. Instead, you need to include just the page number (no other citation information) in parentheses for both your direct quotes and paraphrases of the author's arguments. Also, instead of a bibliography at the end, the book information comes at the very beginning (top of page 1), and includes the number of pages in the book at the end of it.

Here are some additional tips and suggestions.

Question 1: Above all, what is the author's thesis? What is he or she trying to prove? In other words, what is holding the book together?

Question 2: Identify the key arguments used to support the thesis. The student cannot describe all of them in minute detail, but he/she must provide an overview of all of them.

Question 3: Always thoroughly read the introduction and conclusion. Often, the author will describe the thesis in the introduction and emphasize how it was proven in the conclusion. Determine what the author considers to be the key chapters offering support for the thesis. Thoroughly read those as well if time allows. There is an "art" to skimming chapters that the student must develop.

Question 4: Do not get bogged down in the minutia of details. Facts matter, especially when the student relies upon evidence from books and articles to support his/her own research agenda. In other words, the student will use historians' arguments and the distinct facts and evidence to support the thesis statements of his/her own research papers in future classes. But, those facts and minor details are not part of a Book Review. Focus on the larger themes.