General advice on writing a book review:
The purpose of a book review is to develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, not to test your ability to summarize what others have said. So, do not just summarize what Ho-fung Hung says in City on the Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule.
Your book review must be a thoughtful discussion of Hung’s book. The instructor wants to know if you can analyze the overall thesis and the most important aspects of his book in your own words.
There will be no lecture on Hung’s book. Do not ask the instructor anything about its content. Do not ask him to help you write your unique book review or whether you can insert certain information into your book review paper.
The following should be helpful information to begin with in case you do not know the usual components of a good book review:
Specify the type of the book.
Pay attention to the full book title and its meaning or significance.
Summarize the book’s overall thesis.
Briefly include any aspects of the author’s background that are helpful to understand the book and its specific historical context.
Describe the author’s purpose for writing.
Discuss the book’s overall structure–chapters, sources, and additional features such as the images, maps, illustrations, charts, and graphs.
You should analyze the main issues that the book raises. Explain the author’s pertinent viewpoints and supporting arguments in the specific historical context. If you have personal opinions on the issues, justify them. That is, you should make a well-supported and convincing argument on behalf of whatever position you are advocating. Remember that you review the book as it was written, not as you wish it had been written.
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the book.
Use direct quotations selectively and sparingly. Avoid using block quotations and excerpting several sentences at once.
Conclude with an overall assessment of the book. Does it succeed at doing what the author is setting out to do? Does the book contribute to our understanding of the period or topic?
Note that the book review should not be in a question-and-answer format.
Technical advice and formatting guidelines:
Writing a book review is a formal writing assignment. Penalty for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and other language issues such as using colloquial expressions and contractions: 1-3 points.
Your book review paper will be penalized by three points if its entire content (including footnotes and page numbers) exceeds 1,900 words or fewer than 1,800 words.
The book review paper must be word-processed and double-spaced (excluding single-spaced footnotes) for its entire content. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point.
Use just one side of the 2-side paper for writing the book review. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point.
Use the 14-point font (Times New Roman only) for the entire book review paper except footnotes; use the 12-point font (Times New Roman only) for the footnotes. Non-compliant penalty: 1-2 points.
Do not use fancy typefaces. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point.
Standard one-inch margins on all sides. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point.
The first line of a new paragraph must be indented. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point for one or more occurrences.
Pages must be numbered consecutively at the upper right side of each page. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point.
Do not provide a title page or cover sheet. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point.
On page one of the book review paper, print your first and last name, course/class number (HIST 4347.251), and semester (SPRING 2024) on just one line and along the upper left-hand corner. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point. Do not print the same information again on the following pages. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point for one or more occurrences.
Two lines (i.e., double space) below the aforementioned information, you must provide full citation about the book under review: author’s last name, a comma, then his first name and a period; full book title—it must be italicized, not underlined; place of publication, publisher, and date of publication; number of pages in the book; and finally, total cost you paid for the book—if it is “0,” explain (for example, “Borrowed book”). Non-compliant penalty: 1-3 points.
You start writing the review of the book two lines below its full citation.
You must use the single-spaced footnote format to quote from City on the Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule. Non-compliant penalty: 2 points for one or more occurrences.
There must be at least seven single-spaced footnotes. Non-compliant penalty: 2 points.
The quoted page numbers in the book review must match the same page numbers in City on the Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule. Non-compliant penalty: 2 points for one or more occurrences.
Use the Chicago Manual of Style format for footnote citations. Non-compliant penalty: two points for one or more occurrences. Information on the Chicago Manual of Style is available on the internet.
You are encouraged but not required to use outside sources for the book review. Although using outside sources will not earn bonus points, relevant and important research material can help improve the quality of your review of Ho-fung Hung’s book. Furthermore, when you cite a source of any information you find on the Web, include in the citation note the following information: Author/editor, title of the Web page; publication date and/or the date you retrieved the page from the Web; URL; and include any information pertinent to that particular article/page, for example, the volume number, issue number, etc. Non-compliant penalty: 2 points for one or more occurrences. Note that you will not lose points for not using outside sources.
Do not provide a Bibliography. Non-compliant penalty: 1 point.
You must provide the total word count for the entire book review paper (including footnotes and page numbers) at the bottom of the last page of the paper. Non-compliant penalty: 3 points.
The entire book review paper must be clean and stapled at the upper left side. Non-compliant penalty: 1-2 points.
If you have questions or concerns about your graded book review paper, we can discuss them in my office by April 25, 2024. You must bring along Ho-fung Hung’s book to facilitate discussion, no book, no discussion. Furthermore, it is not impossible that previously undetected factual or other errors may be discovered in the content of the graded book review paper during the discussion. If such errors are found, the instructor reserves the right to change the original grade of the concerned book review paper.
