What is the title of the article? Who is the author? Where and when did the article appear?
‘The Endangered Scholarly Book Review’ by Lynn Worsham
1st April 2012 on THE CHRONICLE of higher education (chronicle.com)
What are the author’s credentials?
Lynn Worsham is a professor of English at Idaho State University and editor of JAC: A Journal of Rhetoric, Culture, & Politics.
What is the nature of the article?
It is a comment regretting the decrease of book reviews getting published in a scholarly way
What is the theme of the article?
The article is about what is important for a scholarly book review
Why did the author write it?
In order to encourage editors to continue publishing scholarly book reviews and to encourage doctoral students to write reviews and instruct them on how to do it right
What does the author claim?
She claims that editors take out review sections because they’re much more time consuming than articles and that they say readers aren’t interested in reviews anymore. However, she claims that this is not a valid point and that reviews, done properly, are still a viable and important contribution to intellectual life.
How does she support this?
It serves an important function to help busy scholars to make informed decisions about what to read and how to use your time wisely.
What is the overall appeal of the article (or lack thereof)? Give reasons.
The article makes people want to save reviews because the author makes them seem appealing not only for readers but also for writers.
Do you agree or disagree with what the writer suggests? Why?
We agree because book reviews are a great honor to an author of books and are very important in a world with so many publications that you cannot read everything.
What options does the article suggest? Explain.
Aside from the "traditional" book review, another possibility of writing a review in form of an essay is named and has to be distinguished. This way two or more books are dealt with in one essay. In order to achieve this the author does not create one little review after the other, but analyses how the topics of the book are represented.
Do you know of any other writings on this theme? Do they coincide with what you think or what the author thinks?
Does the article provide any new insights for you or a larger reading audience?
The article does not really state anything new in our opinion. Nevertheless, it lists important facts about the structure and making of book reviews in an organised, logical way.
Give your overall evaluation and recap your main reasons for this.
Would you recommend this article, and if so, to whom?
We would definitely recommend this article because of several reasons: Firstly, it takes the author's point of view as well as the reader's interest into account. On top of that, it includes advices on different genres. Secondly, it is easy to work with because of many lists.
Therefore, it is worth to be recommended to everyone who wants to create a book review in an effective organised and fast way. That means that it is interesting for students as well as pupils.
We would definitely recommend this article because of several reasons: Firstly, it takes the author's point of view as well as the reader's interest into account. On top of that, it includes advices on different genres. Secondly, it is easy to work with because of many lists.
Therefore, it is worth to be recommended to everyone who wants to create a book review in an effective organised and fast way. That means that it is interesting for students as well as pupils.
This question about other writings on this theme: I cannot name any specific texts and authors, but didn't we all receive similiar sheets in school? Couldn't we mention that?
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