guidelines-for-a-two-book-review

Writing Your Two-Book Review i A book review is a short critical essay. It’s not meant to prove that you read the book. Rather, the goal is to analyze it and illustrate its strengths and weaknesses. In this case you’re asked to do a multi-book review which means you also need to compare the two books and extend your analysis to how they relate to each other. In essence, you’re asked to do three mini essays that tell a story when read together with a concluding paragraph. Guidance is provided in the following for these mini-essays, the conclusion and a list of sources. I recommend structuring your multi-book review as follows using appropriate headings for each of the four parts.

1. Review of the first book Introduction. Briefly introduce the theme or central argument for your review of the first book. This is a statement of how you sum up your evaluation of the book. A single paragraph will probably do the job but because this section sets the tone for your review, you should try to be clear and capture the reader’s attention.

Bibliographic citation. Cite the book as shown below. An image of the cover is not required but can also be included.

Charles Wheelan Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science New York: Norton & Company, Inc., 2010 354 pp.

ISBN 978-9-393-33764-8

Summary. This is where you get to summarize what’s in the book. Imagine that your reader hasn’t read it yet and focus on telling them what it’s about. This is likely no longer than a paragraph or two. In some cases an effective review will combine the summary and the analysis (see below) but, either way, be sure that your review achieves both goals – a summary is very different from an analysis.

Analysis. Analyze the book. This goes deeper than your summary to provide a synopsis of the book’s main arguments and themes. You should focus on why the author wrote the book and what he or she wants readers to take away. This can be done in a few paragraphs.

Critique and recommendation. Finally, provide your readers with a critique and recommendation. What do you think about the book? Why? Remember to treat both its strengths and weaknesses. Do you recommend reading it? Why? Tie your recommendation back to the theme or central argument provided in the introduction and remember that you’re a reviewer, not a summarizer. This should take no more than a paragraph or two.

Guidelines for a two-book review

© Alex Bruton, 2012

www.theinnographer.com

2. Review of the second book Follow the structure outlined above for the second book, i.e. provide a mini-essay with a second introduction, citation, summary, analysis, and critique and recommendation.

3. Comparative analysis You’ve been asked to review two books because they treat a similar theme or topic (even though they may treat them differently or come to different conclusions). I don’t want you to focus much on differences in linguistic style or organization unless those are central to the content and ideas in the books. Rather, I want you to take your reader deeper into how the books relate to each other and what the two authors have to say about the common theme or topic. In doing a comparative analysis you’ll need to demonstrate having more than just a surface understanding of the two books and come to a conclusion about the theme or topic.

Comparative analysis. Analyze the books together. I know it’s rather simplistic and I know that about.com may not be a rigorous academic source, but I like the approach proposed here for coming up with a structure for such an analysis: http://homeworktips.about.com/od/essaywriting/ss/venn.htm. In other words, you should analyze what’s common to the two books and what’s specific to each of the books, and then structure what you write in a way that reflects that process. As you did in the reviews of each book, go deeper here than just summarizing what the books do or don’t have in common. Focus on the main arguments and themes and what the reader can take away. Doing this will take two to five paragraphs, and you’re welcome to include a venn diagram similar to the one shown in the link above.

4. Conclusion In a single paragraph, provide a succinct conclusion to close your multi-book review. Focus on the theme or topic common to the two books and not on the books themselves (since you already did this in the earlier reviews). Try to leave the reader with something to think about.

5. Sources As you refer in your review to ideas in the books you’ve read, use the format demonstrated below: Next, the book tackles the notions of productivity and human capital, making the argument that human capital matters so much in our society because it is inextricably linked to productivity (Wheelan, p.126).

where, in this example, Wheelan is the author’s last name and page 126 is where the reader can look for the argument in question. If you refer to sources other than the two books themselves, then provide them in a list at the end of your review. You can refer to their ideas using the same author and page number format. i

This review draws liberally upon ideas presented in the following two websites which can also provide further reading and guidance: http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/historyandclassics/BookReviewWritingGuide.cfm and http://library.queensu.ca/research/guide/book-reviews/how-write.

Guidelines for a two-book review

© Alex Bruton, 2012

www.theinnographer.com