This is a two part assignment with an outline and then the review
the out line- two pages – and book review 4 with a resource page….
Outline of the Book Review
Name:
Instructions
• Your outline of the Book Review should consist of one sentence answers to each of the questions under the four general sections below. Your answers here will form the basis of your actual Book Review.
• The outline of the Book Review is NOT your full Book Review that you will submit at the end of the semester as explained in the “Guidelines for Writing a Book Review” under Week 15 Assignments. You should therefore NOT submit a full book review in place of the outline required here. It is therefore important that you complete the outline in accordance with the instructions in the first point above.
• You are free to write your one sentence answers in between the questions below, but you should retain the questions and sections to help your reader follow the logic of your answers.
1. Introduction:
a) What is the title and purpose or objective of the book?
b) Who is the author (name, experience, qualification)?
c) What are additional bibliographical information about the book (Publisher? Number of pages? Cost?)
d) What is the setting for the book?
2. Content:
a) What exactly is in the book?
b) What are the main issues and or questions the book deals with?
c) What arguments and conclusions does the author make?
3. Elucidation:
a) What is the overall value or contribution of the book to the field of health (or medical sociology)?
b) How important is the subject matter to the study of medical sociology?
c) How does the author’s work fit within the current literature on this topic?
d) How does this book compare with other books written on the same subject?
e) What are the limitations and strengths of the author’s methodology?
4. Analysis:
a) How complete and thorough is the author’s coverage of the subject?
b) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the book in general?
c) What is the quality of the writing in the book? How clear, precise, and interesting is the book?
d) What did the author omit which should have been considered in this book?
e) What is the recommended readership for the book (experts in the field, newcomers in the field, general public, combination of all of these)?
the book review
Guidelines for Writing the Medical Sociology Book Review
The Purpose of a book review
It is an exercise in understanding a text and evaluating its content to help people who have not read the book to judge the worth of reading the book. The review highlights content, strengths, and weaknesses of a book in an essay to make this judgment easier for potential readers. The question the reviewer wants to answer effectively is whether reading the book is worth the time of potential readers, recognizing that different readers have different interests. In sociology, the focus of a book review is to examine the essential elements of the book, its informational value for decision-making or policy matters, and its contribution to knowledge about the subject matter and for research.
Note: It is almost impossible to write a good review without reading other reviews of the work or related topics. It is similarly difficult to write a great review without reading other books about the same topic. A comparative focus helps to make a good review.
Organizing the review paper
Unlike many other forms of writing, the book review is usually written without subheadings. However, it must be organized to provide four important elements: introduction, content examination, elucidation, and analysis/evaluation.
1. Introduction- The first sentence should entice people to read your review. Start your review with a sentence that both sums up the objective of the book, and catches the reader’s eye. Be sure, however, that your opening statement is an accurate portrayal of the book as well as an enticement to your reader.
Key question to answer here include:
• What is the title and purpose or objective of the book?
• Who is the author (name, experience, qualification)?
• What are additional bibliographical information about the book (Publisher? Number of pages? Cost?)
• What is the setting for the book?
2. Content- The reader wants to know what is contained in the book. Provide information about the content by telling exactly what is in the book- the main issues and questions, the arguments, the conclusions, etc. The reviewer must summarize the book in ways that allow the reader to know the book without reading it.
Key questions to answer here include:
• What exactly is in the book?
• What are the main issues and or questions the book deals with?
• What arguments and conclusions does the author make?
3. Elucidation- Elucidate, or clarify, the book’s value and contribution to medical sociology by defining how the author’s work fits within current similar efforts in the discipline of sociology or scholarship inquiry in general. Provide additional information about the issues discussed in the book and show how the author’s work fits within general medical sociological knowledge about the issue under consideration.
Key questions to answer here include:
• What is the overall value or contribution of the book to the field of health (or medical sociology)?
• How important is the subject matter to the study of medical sociology?
• How does the author’s work fit within the current literature on this topic?
• How does this book compare with other books written on the same subject?
• What are the limitations and strengths of the author’s methodology?
4. Analysis- your review must show what other works contribute to the debate and how the current work compares to works in the same area. Use standards to estimate the extent to which the book is successful in addressing the subject matter, compared to others, limitations and strengths of the analysis, method, and data, quality of the writing, and clarity.
Key questions to answer here include:
• How complete and thorough is the author’s coverage of the subject?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the book in general?
• What is the quality of the writing in the book? How clear, precise, and interesting is the book?
• What did the author omit which should have been considered in this book?
• What is the recommended readership for the book (experts in the field, newcomers in the field, general public, combination of all of these)?
When giving your evaluation according to the questions above, you should be specific. If you write, “This is a good book; I liked it very much,” you have told the reader noting of interest or value. But if you say, for example, “Richard Preston’s book provides a good illustration of the public health implication of health behavior, but it fails to describe the full extent of Irwin Rosenstock’s health belief model…” then you have given your reader some concrete information
Specifics of the Review Paper: The paper must have a length of 3-5 double spaced-pages excluding the reference page/s (that’s correct, you need to include outside sources that you have used to get additional information on the subject matter. You need to have at least 3 external sources). All pages must have proper formatting using Times New Roman font size 12, double spaced, 1×1 inch margin on all sides. Follow whichever citation style used in your major (e.g. APA, MLA, ASA, etc.)
Sample Book Review: A sample book review is available on Blackboard. In addition, you can also google other samples of book reviews so you can see different examples.