For Assignment #5, you will be reading a book and completing a book review (note, not book report). A list of available books has been posted to the class blog. If there is another book you are interested in reading for the assignment, it will need to be either by a journalist or written about journalism, and it will need to be run by me in order to count. As well, examples of what I am looking for with the book reviews have also been posted to the class blog.
For overall content, I’m interested in what the book does well, and then not so great. I’m interested that you examine and/or include the following content at the bare minimum:
- Your opinion on the book (this is important to include as it differentiates it away from a book report), and what you would rate it out of five. You then need to back up that rating with what the book did well and not so well (including the below categories).
- An original synopsis/summary of the book – or, what is the story about?
- Background Information of the Material – What is important to know in order to understand the material? Is there anything?
- Writing Style – Was it done well? Was the writing hard to understand? Was it too easy? Does it change your relationship to the text?
- Plot – how was the narrative? Did it flow? Did it feel disjointed?
- Journalism – What journalism was included? How does it relate to the material we’ve discussed in class?
The assignment needs to be 900 words, and it needs to have the publication details of the book written at the bottom. As well, this assignment does not need to be written in the standard essay format, e.g., it does not need to have a thesis or conclusion. What it does need, however, is a rating (out of five), and publication details.
To get an idea of what we will be looking for, you should refer to the New York Times book reviews.
I will be grading on a scale of 0 to 5 for 25 points total on the following categories: Shows clear engagement with and reflection of the journalistic material, provided sufficient background information about the story and journalist/author, applied class material to your analysis of the text, work was free of spelling and grammatical errors, and assignment meets stylistic requirements, including providing a rating and sufficient explanation as to why, and meeting the word limit.
Finally, as mentioned in class, I want to stress that I will be able to tell if you did not read your book and instead just used summaries online. You are required to read the book cover to cover and engage with the text, and it will be obvious if you have not. As part of this, while I encourage the inclusion of outside sources, I am not allowing any reference to any online summaries.
The assignment is due to the D2L dropbox “Assignment 5” by 11:59 p.m. on December 9th.
Please let me know if you have any questions and have a great Thanksgiving break!