The book report is an assignment that is self-directed. Just read these instructions, then go read the book and write the paper. If you put this assignment off until the end of the term, then I suspect your paper will reflect that lack of planning. I suggest you work diligently, bit by bit on this project. It should reflect the work of eight weeks of effort by a 1000 level student (a first-year student) at a major public university in the United States. There are a few goals here. One is time management. I want to see how you can self-reliantly manage a semester-long project successfully. Another is following directions. Like with the bonus papers and the midterm and final, I want to see how you are able to follow the directions of the required writing format in the class. I am sure you are used to writing a certain way in other classes, but in this class we have a specific writing format that we use. If you do not like it, please do not ever use it again after our class. But show me and yourself that you are able to master this format this term, so that you can make an informed judgement based on experience whether this writing format is useful to you in the future or not. Personally, I think this writing format is helpful when writing cover letters, business correspondence/emails, or graduate school essays, like a law school’s personal statement. But maybe the writing format is total garbage. Let me know your thoughts at the end of the term. For now, just learn the writing format (which is posted in D2L in module 1) and go download (or buy, if you like) the book required for this project, which is Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. You can download this book for free here: https://gutenberg.org/files/23/23-h/23-h.htmThe substance of the book report requires you to do two things: summarize the book and write a personal reflection about the book. The summary of the book is straightforward: write a summary of the book. Your audience in the book report is not me (the instructor), but rather a general stranger (a random reader), so you need to tell that person enough detail so they can follow along with what happened in the plot. For the summary section, think about it like you were writing a movie review for a magazine like The New Yorker. It’s going to be a detailed summary of the plot, but not a word-for-word rendition of the script, nor a superficial tweet about the story that takes up barely any space. I suggest you go chapter by chapter in the summary section, separating each chapter with a sub-heading. There is no page minimum or maximum for the book report (or any assignment you submit via turnitin); make your papers long enough to get the job done. Longer is generally better, but do not write just to fill space. That is easy to spot when grading and it will not be rewarded. After you summarize the book for your audience, I then want you to reflect on what you thought was the most important passage of the book. You must first set up a quote of this passage(s) for your reader. Then, “explain” to the reader why you think this passage(s) is the most important one(s) in the book. What is it about this passage(s) that you found so significant? Explain your reasoning to the reader. When grading the book report, I am looking initially at the format. Did you follow the rules such as where to place your name (upper right corner) and did you use headings and in-text citations, etc.? Those are the things I look at when it comes to the format. On the substance, I am looking to see whether you presented a correct/complete/organized/on-point summary of the book. Did you provide attribution in your summary section? For the reflection section, I am looking to see whether you were correct/complete/organized/on-point. Did you set up the relevant passage(s) at the beginning of your reflection section? Is what you wrote n your reflection section consistent with reason and logic or do you make false assumptions and/or unsupported assertions? Are there spelling errors in your book report? Those are the sort of things I am looking at when I grade your work. See the format rules in module 1 on D2L for more specific information. Do not procrastinate on this project, but also do not make it harder than it is. We’re just reading a good book and then writing a summary and a reflection on it (following a required writing format ofc). Make sense?
