Book Review/Article Critique Guidelines PDF

THE BOOK REVIE W OR ARTICLE CR ITIQUE  THE BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE CRITIQUE A review (or “critique”) of a book or article is not primarily a summary. Rather, it analyses, comments on, and evaluates the work. Your review should show that you can recognize arguments and engage in cri...

THE BOOK REVIE W OR ARTICLE CR ITIQUE  THE BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE CRITIQUE A review (or “critique”) of a book or article is not primarily a summary. Rather, it analyses, comments on, and evaluates the work. Your review should show that you can recognize arguments and engage in critical thinking about the course content.  GENERAL GUIDELINES What is the specific topic of the book or article? What overall purpose does it seem to have? For what readership is it written? (Look in the preface, acknowledgments, reference list and index for clues about where and how the piece was originally published, and about the author's background and position.)  GENERAL GUIDELINES What kinds of material does the work present (e.g. primary documents or secondary material, personal observations, literary analysis, quantitative data, biographical or historical accounts)?  GENERAL GUIDELINES What are your reactions and opinions regarding the work? Components of the review: An introduction to the author(s), including the author's title and place of work, and some indication of who the author is (e.g., the renowned authority on campus finance; a bold, young architect-scholar of campus design; a frequent critic of academic administration). Components of the review: A summary of the intended purpose of the book and how it contributes to improving academic life. Components of the review: A description of the way the author approaches his or her topic, the rigor of the research and scholarship, the logic of the argument, and the readability of the prose. Components of the review: A comparison with earlier or similar books in the field to place the book in the existing literature. Components of the review: An evaluation of the book's merits, usefulness, and special contributions, along with shortcomings you think are necessary to point out. THE LITERATURE REVIEW  THE LITERATURE REVIEW The aim of a literature review is to show your reader that you have read, and have a good grasp of the main published work concerning a particular topic or question in your field. This work may be in any format, including online sources. It may be a separate assignment, or one of the introductory sections of a report, dissertation or thesis. In the latter cases in particular, the review will be guided by your research objective or by the issue or thesis you are arguing and will provide the framework for your further work.  THE LITERATURE REVIEW It is very important to note that your review should not be simply a description of what others have published in the form of a set of summaries, but should take the form of a critical discussion, showing insight and an awareness of differing arguments, theories and approaches. It should be a synthesis and analysis of the relevant published work, linked at all times to your own purpose and rationale.  Purposes of the review to define and limit the problem you are working on to place your study in an historical perspective to avoid unnecessary duplication to evaluate promising research methods to relate your findings to previous knowledge and suggest further research  How a literature review helps scientists and readers Readers are able Scientists are to: able to: Form an idea about Learn about the current state of developments in understanding on a the field topic Find gaps in Decide whether to research read each article Identify new topics individually of research You can write your literature review using one of the following approaches: Chronolog Thematic ical  The chronological approach Describes each work in succession, starting with the earliest available information.  TIPS for using the chronological approach Use this structure when you want to focus on how ideas or methodology have progressed over time. Group and discuss your sources in order of their publication date. Record the research and developments in each group.  TIPS for using the chronological approach Check how the field has developed over the years. Do all studies discuss a common topic? Example: how models for treatment methods for skin cancer in children have developed over a specific period  The thematic approach Organizes and discusses existing literature based on themes or theoretical concepts you feel are important to understanding the topic.  TIPS for using the thematic approach  Remember that you need to do much more than summarizing each study.  Analyze existing knowledge on the topic with regard to certain important issues.  Draw the readers’ attention to new angles or perspectives.  Start listing citations you may include in your paper. LANGUAGE AND GENDER: A brief Literature Review With the general growth of feminist work in many academic fields, it is hardly surprising that the relationship between language and gender has attracted considerable attention in recent years. In an attempt to go beyond "folklinguistic" assumptions about how men and women use language (the assumption that women are "talkative", for example), studies have focused on anything from different syntactical, phonological or lexical uses of language to aspects of conversation analysis, such as topic nomination and control, interruptions and other interactional features. While some research has focused only on the description of differences, other work has sought to show how linguistic differences both reflect and reproduce social difference. Accordingly, Coates (1988) suggests that research on language and gender can be divided into studies that focus on dominance and those that focus on difference. Much of the earlier work emphasized dominance LANGUAGE AND GENDER: A brief Literature Review Lakoff's (1975) pioneering work suggested that women's speech typically displayed a range of features, such as tag questions, which marked it as inferior and weak. Thus, she argued that the type of subordinate speech learned by a young girl "will later be an excuse others use to keep her in a demeaning position, to refuse to treat her seriously as a human being" (1975, p.5). While there are clearly some problems with Lakoff's work - her analysis was not based on empirical research, for example, and the automatic equation of subordinate with `weak' is problematic - the emphasis on dominance has understandably remained at the Centre of much of this work. Research has shown how men nominated topics more, interrupted more often, held the floor for longer, and so on (see, for example, Zimmerman and West, 1975). The chief focus of this approach, then, has been to show how patterns of interaction between men and women reflect the dominant position of men in society. THE POSITION PA PER  What is a position paper? Basically, this is an essay that expresses your position on your topic and proposes solutions and recommendations for the future. What to do: Formally inform others of your position Present a unique, thought- based solution to solving a problem Demonstrate full comprehension of the issue Be consistent in maintaining your position in negotiation.  Structure of a Position Paper I. Introduction (1 paragraph) II. Body (3 paragraphs) III. Conclusion (1-2 paragraphs)  TIPS Your introduction sentence should be an attention grabber!!! You should use details to support your ideas including quotes, statistics and references to documents. Your conclusion should sum up and reflect the importance of your arguments.  Warning Absolutely no plagiarism will be accepted. That means no copy- pastes from the Internet. All research must be properly cited. Direct excerpts from a text must be in quotation marks. Sample Outline of a Position Paper I. Introduction ___A. Introduce the topic ___B. Provide background on the topic to explain why it is important ___C. Assert the thesis (your view of the issue). Your introduction has a dual purpose: to indicate both the topic and your approach to it (your thesis statement), and to arouse your reader’s interest in what you have to say. One effective way of introducing a topic is to place it in context – to supply a kind of backdrop that will put it in perspective. You should discuss the area into which your topic fits, and then gradually lead into your specific field of discussion (re: your thesis statement). II. Counter Argument ___A. Summarize the counterclaims ___B. Provide supporting information for counterclaims ___C. Refute the counterclaims ___D. Give evidence for argument THE PROJECT PR OPOSAL  THE PROJECT PROPOSAL The Terms of Reference document Sets out an overall plan for your project This is not the same as the design of your product Objectives -Identifies the work to be done. -Explains why this work needs to be done. -Persuade the reader that those who propose are qualified for work, have a plausible management plan and technical approach, and also have the resources needed to complete the task within the stated time and cost constraints.  Key Sections of a Proposal 1.Title Page 2. Project Overview (½ Page) 3.Organizational Profile (½ Page) 4.Project Background and Justification (1 Page) 5. Project Description (3 pages) Project Planning Framework and Strategic Objectives (1 Page) Project Activities/Methodology (2 Pages) END OF PPT