Writing a Book Review Assignment
Instructions
Write a 750 word minimum for book review. One book review is required. you must submit a Word file as your submission. In our writing demonstrate to the instructor that you actually read the book by writing about something from each major section of the book. The book must be from the list that I have created, hence you cannot select just any book.
Be sure to use all the conventions of academic writing. If you quote from the book’s text, please follow APA style–otherwise you do not need to follow APA style in that you do not need an abstract).
- Who is the author in terms of background and credentials? What is the author’s purpose in writing the book? How successfully does the author accomplish her or his goals?
- General summary of the book. No more than one third of your review should summarize the content of the book. Be sure to include specific details from the book to demonstrate that you have carefully read the book. Using details to illustrate your point makes your writing more lively and interesting.
- Critical evaluation: What is your overall impression of the book? What impressed you, make you think, struck you as important? How does the book relate to racial and ethnic relations? How has this book helped you understand the concepts and themes of this course? Would you recommend this book to others?
Your book review will automatically be reviewed for plagiarism by turnitin.com The books listed below are not available at the ASU bookstore. You can get them online bookfinder.com (Links to an external site.) or at a book store very easily. The six possible books for review are:
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.
- Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
- Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys (New Perspectives in Crime, Deviance and Law) by Victor M. Rios
- Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to L.A. by Nadia Y. Kim
- Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of New Immigrants by Robert Courtney Smith
- Autobiography of Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley) Choose one book to review