Writing a Book Review or Article Critique

Writing a Book Review or Article Critique WRITING A BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE CRITIQUE A book review or article critique is a specialized form of academic writing in which a reviewer evaluates the contribution to knowledge of scholarly works such as academic books and journal article. A book review or article critique, which is usually ranges from 250 to 750 words, is not simply a summary. It is a critical assessment, analysis, or evaluation of a work. However, take care not to equate the word “critique” to cynicism and pessimism. As an advance form of writing, it involves your skills in critical thinking and recognizing arguments. A book review or article critique is different in movie review that you see in a newspaper. Although movie reviews involve the analysis of one’s work, they are written for a general audience and primarily aim to offer a persuasive opinion. An academic book review or article critique, on the other hand, addresses a more specific audience and usually offers a critical response to a published scholarly work. Moreover, book review must not be mistaken for book reports. Book reports focus on describing the plot, characters, or idea of a certain work. Book and article reviewers do not just share mere opinion; rather, they use both proofs and logical reasoning to substantiate their opinions. They process ideas and theories, revisit and extend ideas in a specific field of study, and present analytical responses. Structure of a Book Review or Article Critique Introduction (around 5% of the paper)  Title of the book/article  Writer’s name  Writer’s thesis statement Summary (around 10% of the paper)  Writer’s objective or purpose  Methods used (if applicable)  Major findings or claims Review/Critique (in no particular order) (Around 75% of the paper)  Appropriateness of methodology to support the arguments  Theoretical soundness  Soundness of explanation in relation to other available information and experts  Sufficiency of explanation  Other perspectives in explaining the concepts and ideas  Coherence of ideas Conclusion (around 10% of the paper)  Overall impression of the work  Scholarly value of the reviewed article/book  Benefits to the intended audience  Suggestion for future directions When writing a book review or article critique, make sure to ask the following: 1. What is the topic of the book or article? 2. What is its purpose? 3. Who are its intended readers? 4. Does the writer explicitly state his/her thesis statement? 5. What theoretical assumptions (i.e., a scientific/logical explanation without evidence) are mentioned in the book or article? Are they explicitly discuss? 6. What are the contributions of the book or article to the field (e.g., language, psychology) it is situated in? 7. What problems and issues are discussed in the book or article? 8. What kind of information (e.g., observation, survey, statistics, and historical accounts) are presented in the book or article? How they are used to support the arguments or thesis? 9. Are there other ways of supporting the arguments or thesis aside from the information used in the book or article? Is the author silent about these alternative ways of explanation? 10. What is your overall reaction to the work? Guidelines in Writing a Book Review or Article Critique 1. Read the article or book to be reviewed carefully to get its main concept. 2. Reread it to get the arguments being presented. 3. Relate the content of the article or book to what you already know about the topic. This will make you more engaged with the article or book. 4. Focus on discussing how the book treats the topic and not a topic itself. Start your sentences with phrases such as “this book presents…’ and “The author argues…” 5. Situate your review. This means that your analysis should be anchored be anchored on the theories presented by the book or article writer. 6. Examine whether the findings are adequately supported or not. 7. Analyzed the type of analysis the writer use (e.g, quantitative, qualitative, case study) and how its supports the arguments and claims. 8. Suggest some ways on how the writer can improve his/her reasoning or explanation. 9. Discuss how the same topic is explained from other perspective. Compare the writer’s explanation of the topic to another expert from the same field of study. 10. Point out other conclusion or interpretations that the writer missed out. Present other ideas that need to be examined. 11. Examine the connections between ideas and how they affect the conclusions and findings. 12. Show your reactions to the writer’s idea and present an explanation. You can either agree or disagree with the ideas, as long as you can sufficiently support your stand. 13. Suggest some alternative methods and processes of reasoning that would result in a more conclusive interpretation. Completing a book review or article critique means that you can pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of an article or book and that you can identify different perspectives. This task also equips you with more skills to engage in discussions with an expert and makes you a part of a community of scholars. WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW A literature review is a type of academic writing that provides an overview of a specific topic. It surveys scholarly work such as academic books (but not textbooks), computerize databases, conference proceedings, dissertation’s/theses, empirical studies government reports, historical records, journal article, monographs, and statistical handbooks. As an advance form of academic writing, a literature review critically analyzes the relationship among the scholarly works and the current work. It can be written as a stand-alone paper or as part of a research paper explaining a theoretical framework and related studies. Unlike an annotated bibliography which presents a summary and synthesis (i.e., linking different sources). Below are the differences among the sources. Annotated Book Review Bibliography Summarizes the Evaluates a references and explain Review how important they are in addressing the research questions Literature Review book Reviews a significant number of scholarly work to be identify what is known and not known about a topic Doing a literature review will test your ability to seek literature efficiently and identify useful scholarly work. It will also test your ability to evaluate studies for their validity and reliability. Hence, writing a literature review involves research, critical appraisal, and writing. Everything else included, a student may take 40 hours to finish a well- written literature review. Functions of a Literature Review This type of a review has the following roles.  Justifies a research questions, method or theoretical and conceptual framework   Establish the relevant of the topic Provide necessary information to better understand a specific topic or study Shows reviewers familiarity and mastery of the topic Establish a niche of the study  Resolves conflict among contradictory studies Structure of a Literature Review Introduction  Purpose for writing literature review and the importance of the topic being reviewed      Scope the review Criteria used for selecting the literature Organizational pattern of the review Body  Historical background  Relevant theories  Relationship between and among the studies, and how each study advanced a theory   Strengths and weaknesses of each paper Various viewpoints on the topic Conclusion  Restatement of the main argument or thesis  Main agreements and disagreements in the literature  If stand-alone paper: conclusions; implications; and direction for future studies   If part of a thesis or research paper: linking of the literature review to the research questions Overall perspective on the topic. Guidelines in Writing a Literature Review Writing a literature review is composed of three distinct parts ---literature search, evaluation and analysis of articles and writing the literature review –all of which are discussed below. Literature Search 1. Review the documentation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) that you will adopt and be familiar with its format in relation to writing a literature review. 2. Choose and focus on a topic that you will explain. 3. Determine the kind and number of sources you will be using. Will your literature review be exclusive to articles or will it include other documents? Will you focus on experimental studies or will you also include theoretical papers that explain a theory? 4. Survey the available online databases relevant to your topic. These include Proquest, Science Direct, JSTOR, or Google Scholar. As much as possible, include only the references published by top journals and publishers. 5. Use relevant keywords when searching for scholarly documents or article. For example, if your topic is about the impact of Facebook-based e-portfolios on the writing skills of ESL learners, your possible keywords are Facebook , ESL writing, e-portfolio, portfolio assessment, Facebook-based e-portfolio, and social networking site. 6. Always include landmark studies or papers (i.e., studies which had remarkably changed the field) related to your topic. 7. Always evaluate the sources for coverage and currency. Include only those article directly related to your topic. Evaluation and Analysis of Articles Once you have identified and obtained the articles for your review, analyze them before writing the actual literature review. To do this, you may apply the following steps. 1. Skim the articles and read their abstracts. 2. Group the articles and other documents according to their categories. 3. Take down notes. Focus on the research questions, methodology used, major findings and their explanation, and conclusion. 4. Summarize the details using a concept map. In this way, you will see the relationship, similarities and differences among the articles. 5. Write a synthesis of the references you have rea before writing the actual literature review. 6. Create an outline. You may look for other literature reviews to serve as models for writing the outline. Writing the Literature Review Once all the materials are ready and you have clear outline of the ideas you want to express, you may now start the actual writing process. 1. State clearly your thesis or main argument and be guided by it accordingly. Below is an example of a thesis statement for a literature review. Because of Facebook’s popularity, many educators have explored its educational use in the tertiary level. 2. If you say that no studies have been conducted on one aspect of your topic, justify it. 3. Direct the readers to other related literature reviews that cover itemc which you do not intend to cover. You may use the citation format “(see Author, year)” or follow the format prescribed by your chosen documentation style. 4. Never treat a literature review as a series of annotated bibliography. 5. Use headings and subheadings to classify the parts of your topic. For each topic heading, analyze the differences among studies and look for gaps. Note that each paragraph should focus on one aspect of the topic. 6. Use effective transitions to make your review easier to read and understand. 7. The body of the literature review can be organized thematically, methodologically or chronologically.