Leadership Book Review
Students can choose a book from the approved list or submit a book for approval (send an email to Dr.
Hatfield with book title and author). Only assignments completed on approved books will be accepted.
The book review should be approximately 1250-1500 words (do a word count on your computer; 4-5
pages) in length. The review should be more than simply a book report or summary of the material
read. The student should look critically at the material presented. The main portion of the assignment
should be an assessment of the point(s) that the author was trying to convey and the effectiveness of
this conveyance as well as the contribution of this book to the field of leadership and the student’s
professional (and possibly personal) life.
Components to include in the book review include the following:
Introduce the book to the reader, draw the reader in
Explain the author’s main points
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the book
Discuss the contribution this book makes to the concept of leadership
Examine the ways this book challenged your perspective(s) on leadership
How will you apply the principles in this book to a leadership role in your desired career?
Compare and contrast the principles presented in this book with your biblical world view.
Conclusion
It is important to include specific examples/quotes from the book. The key is to carefully and concisely
insert excerpts from the text. These should be appropriately punctuated with quotation marks. Include
a page number in parenthesis at the end of the quote to indicate where the quote is presented in the
book.
As always, it is important for students to take care in utilizing proper spelling, grammar and punctuation.
The level of writing should be indicative of upper-level work. As you review your writing, examine the
organization of what you have written, including the use of logic and evidence. Then, analyze the
paragraph development, and evaluate sentence level matters, including sentence structure and word
choice. Leave the editing and proof-reading until the end of the process (adapted from Markel, M.,
2002, Technical Communication, 6th ed.).
Format: APA 7th ed.
See Canvas for due date.
