How to write a critical book review thesis - How to Write a Critical Appreciation Book Report | Pen and the Pad

This does NOT mean, however, that I want a chapter-by-chapter summary. Your goal is a unified essay. So what do I want, if not just a summary?

Critical Thesis Statement

Throughout your summary, I want you to provide a critique of the book. It is not necessarily negative. Nor do you need to know as much about the subject as the author because you hardly ever will. The skills you need are an ability to follow an argument and test a hypothesis.

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Regardless of how negative or positive your critique is, you need to be able to justify and support your position. Here are a number of questions that you can address as part of your critique. You need not answer them all, but questions one and two are essential to any book review, so those must be included. The answers should be part of a carefully constructed essay, complete with topic sentences and transitions.

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What is your overall opinion of the book? Similarly, it is not enough to report that you disliked a book; you must explain your reaction. Did you find the book unconvincing because the author did not supply enough evidence to support his or her assertions? Or did you disagree with the book's underlying assumptions?

How to Write a Critical Book Review | History | Carleton College

To understand your own reaction to the book, you need to read it carefully and critically. As a critical reader, you are not passive; you should ask questions of the book and note reactions as you read.

Your book review then discusses those questions and reactions. Though there is no "correct" way to structure a review, the following is one possible approach.

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Summarize the book and relate the author's main point, or thesis. Somewhere angelina grimke essay in the paper, identify the author briefly. If so why, if not, why not. Cite examples from the text.

You might discuss who would find this book useful and why. If a book is well written and presents an original thesis supported by convincing evidence, say so. A good book review does not have to be negative; it does have to be fair and analytical.

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Graff, The Modern Researcher, 4th ed. San Diego, As a sample of what such guidelines may be for writers in any of the shorter forms, here is a set of suggestions about the form of the book review. We will assume that it is written for a learned or literary periodical, where the space allotted will usually not exceed 1, words--say the American Historical Review or The New Criterion--or for an upper division course at UW Tacoma, say History of Technology. Your thesis might read, "From disturbing character relationships to symbolic settings, 'The Great Gatsby' presents a compelling portrayal of the recklessness of one of America's most notorious eras: In your introduction or a separate paragraph following it, give readers any information they'll need to follow your report.

This might include a short list of the author's credentials, a brief plot summary or an overview of major concepts in the book.

Be careful not to make this section too lengthy; it's easy to allow your summary to overtake the report at dissertation eating disorders expense of critical analysis.

Crafting the Critical Analysis

Evaluate the Content The body paragraphs of your report work together to describe tsi essay grading effectively the book meets its purpose. Look back at your thesis statement to review your overall position on the book.

His commentary relies onfallacies, unsupported claims, and opinions rather than on logical statements, supported claims, and facts. Therefore, even though Katz expresses much passion, he fails to offer a persuasive argument.

For instance, in an analysis of the Katz commentary, the body would offer specific illustrations of the flawed passages in Katz's commentary; these illustrations would support the analytical claims that you are making about the work.

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The focus, then, is objective analysis, not subjective response. Conclusion The conclusion may restate the author's thesis, but the main purpose of the conclusion should be to emphasize your assessment of the writer's work. Sample Critical Analysis — Integrated Model One technique for integrating a summary and an evaluation is simply to merge the two separate sections like the examples above into a single introductory paragraph.

Another technique is to synthesize the summary and evaluative comments, as in the following sample introduction: Alien 1979 essay InJ. Thus, the essay can pose some difficulties for modern readers, who may not be familiar with literary history or the specific critics to whom Tolkien refers.