A book review is not a summary but a “description, critical analysis, and evaluation of quality and meaning of a book.”
Bibliographic Information
• Author. Title of the Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, and copyright date.
AUTHOR. Information about the Author
• Provide the full name of the author.
• Some personal information about him or his family.
• Institutional Affiliations
• Academic Achievements or Literary Works
AIM. State the author’s purpose of writing the book
• Why did the author write the book?
• Why did he chose the topic?
• Who are the target audiences?
• Does the writing style suit the target audiences?
ANALYSES
• How was the book written—what is the writing style—is it formal? Informal? Academics?
• Be able to identify from which point of view the book is written.
• What kind of literary genre it is? Make sure to familiarize yourself to the field of study that it is written for.
• Check the book’s coherence, clarity, originality, the use of technical words, and the flow of its discussion.
• In case of narrative/fiction/story, take note of the elements involved in the plot: character, setting, and the main crisis, resolutions, how these other elements relate to the plot or theme of the book.
• Scan through the table of contents and observe how the topics are organized
• how did the author accomplish his aim?
• Consult other sources and see how accurate is the information presented by the author.
• Evaluate how the book accomplished its goals and whether it is comprehensive in itself or if there is a need for further work. Go through the bibliography and check its sources and check how your author’s work waver with the work of others.
Note: in your consultation of other sources, make sure that you provide complete citation of sources to avoid being charged of plagiarism.
APPLICATION.
• What new lessons did you learn from this academic paper?
• How does this reading influence your personal life and your ministry?
• In what ways will you apply the lessons you learn from this reading?
