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GUIDELINES FOR WRITING YOUR LIMBO CRITICAL BOOK REVIEW

(Student should insert the name of their book where I have place the wording above)

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Limbo Critical Book Review

Presented to

Jennifer Enderlin

Arkansas Tech University

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OL 4963

Organizational Leadership Capstone

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by

Student’s Name

Student T Number

Date Submitted
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Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Wiley.

Introduction

Writing a critical book review is not always an easy task. Space is generally limited to

five to six pages, yet the essay must sufficiently address the necessary issues. The following

discussion and the included suggestions are offered to facilitate your writing process and to

improve your written communication. Writing a critical review of a piece of literature helps one

develop or fine-tune critical thinking skills along with helping develop the ability to critically

evaluate a resource. A book review looks at the quality, meaning and significance of a book and

identifies strengths and weaknesses of the information. A book review is not a book report,

although a summary of the content of the book is provided as part of the review. A book review

evaluates what the author worked to convey and then presents evidence that supports that.

It should go without saying, but in order to write a critical book review, you need to have

read the entire book. Reading actively and critically, thinking about what the author is saying as

you are reading, will help prepare you for completing the book review assignment. Consider

underlining, highlighting, writing notes in the margin of key ideas that you think will be useful in

your review, as you go along, so they are easy to reference later.

Your review will be comprised of 4 sections, introduced next in this paper. You will

have an Introduction, Summary, Critical Evaluation and Conclusion…include section headers for

these sections in APA format. As you begin your review, be sure to include a complete

reference citation entry of the book being reviewed at the top of the first page (hint: the reference

citation for each book is located in the course module for the book review.) Your paper and

citation should follow APA writing guidelines. Your introduction should introduce the book and

the book’s author, including biographical information about the author (education, training,
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experience, etc.) as it demonstrates his or her competency to write the book. If your book is not

about dogs, it’s not necessary to include that he or she rescues retired racing greyhounds, for

example (hint: you may find this information in the book, or you may have to look elsewhere for

relevant information on the author. Make sure it is from a reputable source.) You should include

any information that you deem germane to introducing the book. In most reviews, you will

likely need to limit the introduction to one or two paragraphs. The introduction should be

approximately one-half page in length.

Summary

The purpose of a critical book review is only minimally to provide a summary of the

book. Your goal is to provide a succinct summary that (1.) provides evidence that you have read

the material and that (2.) tells the reader what the book is about. At this point, focus on the

outline and major points of the book. Illustrate the author’s argument, but do not become side-

tracked with minute details in the summary. Further, avoid critique in this section, as you will

have the opportunity to address such matters in the critical evaluation portion of your review.

Stick strictly it factual information about the book.

Given the limited about of space in a brief book review, footnotes should not be utilized.

Quotations or ideas taken directly from the text should be followed parenthetically by the page

number of the quotation. The abbreviation for page(s) (p./pp/) should not be used. The

following sentences provide examples of proper referencing for this paper:

1. These are deep problems, painful problems – problems that quick fix approaches

can’t solve (24).

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2. Covey suggests that trying to change outward attitudes and behaviors does very little

good in the long run if we fail to examine the basic paradigms from which those

attitudes and behaviors flow (36).

Avoid including numerous quotations, as they take away from the briefness of your review. This

section is equivalent to a thesis statement in that it includes an overview of the book that both

incorporates an encapsulated summary and a sense of your general judgment.

Critical Evaluation

The critical evaluation section is the most important one of a book review. Your primary

purpose in this section is to respond both positively and negatively to the book’s content and the

author’s presentation. This section will generally be three pages in length.

Needless to say, this response should be more in-depth than “This book is a good book

that should be recommended reading for everyone.” On the other hand, “This book is a lousy

book not worth reading” is also inadequate. While all books are different (and thus require

somewhat differing approaches for review), the following questions should guide your

evaluation (hint: I will look for this information in your paper…placing it in the order it is listed

here (in paragraph form) will ensure that you include what you are supposed to and that I don’t

miss it when I am grading the paper):

1. What is the author’s purpose, i.e., what does he or she hope to accomplish through this

book? Does the author accomplish the purpose? If so, how does he or she do it? If not,

why not?

2. Does the author approach the subject with any biases, i.e., do the author’s experiential,

philosophical, cultural or social perspectives influence his or her conclusions?

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3. What are the strengths of the book, i.e., what contributions does the book make? More

specifically, why should a person read this book?

4. What are the weaknesses of the book? Does the author properly support his or her thesis?

Does the author adequately consider and refute opposing viewpoints? Is the book limited

in application to specific types of subjects? Is the book relevant to contemporary culture?

5. How effectively does the author draw claims from the material being presented? Are

connections between the claims and evidence made clearly and logically? Here you

should use examples to support your evaluation.

6. Does the author have to resort to suppression of contrary evidence in order to make the

thesis credible (slanting)? If so, what additional evidence would weaken the case?

7. Is the author’s case proved, or would another thesis have been more appropriately

chosen?

Throughout your critique, be specific in your evaluations and the arguments you make

concerning the work. In your critique, demonstrate the validity of your arguments with concrete

examples, clear logic and good reasoning. Further, be sure to provide evidence to support your

claims.

Conclusion

In this final section, you need to offer your overall evaluation of the book. It is

appropriate to use first person language as you develop this section. Here are a few questions

you should consider: To whom would you recommend this book, and why? What did you learn

from this book about social class issues that exist in society? How would you apply the

information in the book to your personal life (leadership roles/supervisory roles/career)? Two

well-formed paragraphs should suffice in this section.

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Just as my example/instructional paper was roughly six pages, you can expect your

book review paper to be anywhere from five to six pages in length. Please refer to the critical

book review rubric provided for you in the Critical Book Review module.

Things to consider as you tidy up your paper:

 APA writing style should be utilized

o 12 pt Times New Roman font
o 1 inch paper margins
o Double-spaced lines
o Avoid using contractions in formal writing (can’t, don’t, aren’t, etc.)
o Use first-person language sparingly; however, you may use “I” when
referring to your opinion of the book

 A reference page should be included at the end of the report, referencing any

outside sources you included in the book

o This will be the book itself and any additional sources that were used to

help you with background information

o Use ReciteWorks to check your citations (https://reciteworks.com/)

 Use spell check, watch your sentence structure and proof read for grammatical

issues.

 This is a senior-level course and you are expected to write like a senior-level

college student with organized and well-presented ideas.