Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students

What is a book review?

A review is a detailed, analytical discussion of a
given work.
 In other words, you will methodically analyze,
discuss and explain the given work by sections and
chapters.
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students

One of your assignments through the semester is

to work on a book review on YOUR OWN from the
selection of choices provided by your course
instructor.
You may make your selection from the following
list on the next slide:
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students

1. Rabindranath Tagore, Home and the World ('Ghare Baire')

2. Syed Mujtaba Ali, In a Land Far from Home ('Deshe Bideshe')
3. Sarat Chandra Chattopadyaya, The Right of Way('Pather Dabi')
4. Rabindranath Tagore, The Broken Nest ('Nashtaneer')
5. Jahanara Imam, Of Blood and Fire ('Ekkatur ar Din Guli')
6. A.G. Stock, Memoirs of Dhaka University
7. Archer K. Blood, The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh
8. Mahasweta Devi, Titu Mir
 Book Review Guidelines for
students: CRITERIA PARAMETERS

 This assignment is to be based on your individual reading and

comprehension efforts only.
 Do not use any outside ‘expert’ commentaries or book reviews; you will be
severely penalized and automatically be given a low failing grade if you
do so.
 You are permitted to, and should use up to four or five (depending on your
instructor)outside academic sources (NOT unverified or popular sources like
Wikipedia) to provide contextual understanding of the background against which your
book is set.
 Book Review Guidelines for
students: CRITERIA PARAMETERS

For example, you may cite correspondence

between Rabindranath Tagore and Sarat
Chandra Chatterji discussing the banning
of Pathar Dabi by the British Empire in
the nineteen twenties.
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students: CRITERIA PARAMETERS

 Your permitted sources for the set number of citations

(decided by your instructor) must be academic and or
documents of record (newspapers, journals), no
unverifiable or ‘popular’ resources, e.g. Wikipedia
 Your Course Instructor will address any questions or
inquiries regarding this important issue.
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students: IN THE BEGINNING

 Depending on the work you have chosen, you may not be

familiar with the historical, contextual, factual background
of the setting.
 Do not worry about this just yet, as your course material
begins to cover the time period, you will have a better
understanding of these, and your outside readings and sources
should also be geared towards providing you context.
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students: IN THE BEGINNING

 Keep a separate notebook for the book review

 You must continuously take notes of what you are
reading, including insights, observations and
questions which you may wish to raise either in
your review or during class discussions.
 Use a reliable dictionary
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students: IN THE BEGINNING

 Use one of your outside readings to better understand

the author of your review and why they wrote their
work.
 For example, why did A.G. Stock feel the need to put
down on paper her observations of life in East Bengal
and teaching at Dhaka University during 1947–1954?
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students: IN THE BEGINNING

 CONSIDER:
 How has the author constructed the landscape/terrain of her/his work?
 Have they done it effectively?
 Are you able to ‘immerse’ yourself in their world? Why or why not?
 What words, expressions, language helps or hinders the process in your
opinion?
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students: IN THE BEGINNING

 CONSIDER:
 THE author’s use of language to describe characters, is there a
protagonist (‘hero’) or antagonist (‘anti-hero’)?
 Can you detect the author’s feelings or views toward the characters,
how, why?
 How do you feel about the characters as you progress through the book?
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students: IN THE BEGINNING

 CONSIDER:
 How does the story, the narrative, the events, the words and language speak
to you?
 Does the work help you understand who you are today and how you arrived here
in the historical context of your homeland’s evolutions and transitions?
 How does the work help you answer the question, ‘who am I in the narrative
of my homeland and South Asia?’
Emergence of Bangladesh Course:

Book Review Guidelines for

students: IN THE BEGINNING

 CONSIDER:
 Share some of your opinions on the narrative and events.

 Remember however that opinions are not the same as factual evidence.

 Reserve your opinion for your concluding paragraph or paragraphs.

 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
LINKING UP THE SUBJECT WITH THE COURSE
MATERIAL

 CONSIDER:
 As you learn about the background of the subject of your
book in the course lectures, begin to link your notes and
understanding with the factual, political, historical,
cultural and economic analysis provided by your course
instructor.
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
LINKING UP THE SUBJECT WITH THE COURSE
MATERIAL

 CONSIDER:
 For example, what was Tagore’s view of revolutionaries
historically? What is it in Home and the World?
 How does the linking up of the two streams of information
affect your understanding? Does it change your perspective?
Why or why not?
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
LINKING UP THE SUBJECT WITH THE COURSE
MATERIAL

 CONSIDER:
 What is the author’s main argument or thesis in the book,
are there multiple arguments?
 Set out the author’s main argument and thesis and integrate
it into the main body of your essay and conclusion
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
CLOSING THOUGHTS

 As you begin to work towards the conclusion of your review, consider the
significance of the work for you, and its place in helping you understand the
broader subject area of which it the book is a contributing component
 What new ideas and concepts has the work raised in your mind about the broader
subject area?
 Did you like it, what did you like, what did you not like, why not?
 Who would you recommend the book to, why?
 Book Review Guidelines for
students: CRITERIA PARAMETERS

IMPORTANT:
 Any collaboration with others will result in
severe penalties for all implicated in such
dishonesty, including low failing grades for the
assignment and or other punishments deemed
necessary.
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
FORMATTING GUIDELINES, FOOTNOTE CITATIONS

 Formatting guidelines will be given to you individually by your Course

Instructor
 You will use footnote citations for all citations
 Remember that for every specific idea, statement, paraphrased sentence,
expression and of course direct quotations from the you will need to cite the
work in each instance
This will be done by footnoting
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO FOOTNOTE

1) First, in your Microsoft Word document, position your cursor (the

blinking perpendicular line) where you would like to generate your
footnote; generally at the end of a sentence after the full stop.
2) Footnotes are generated by pressing “control”, “alt” and “F”
buttons simultaneously
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO FOOTNOTE

3) You will now see at the bottom of the page a horizontal line and
underneath it, your first footnote. Adjust font size if needed.
4) Footnotes are consecutively numbered by the Microsoft word program,
so you do not need to worry as the Microsoft program will ‘readjust’
accordingly if you delete a footnote after creating multiple ones.
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO FOOTNOTE

5) Your first citation of a work, the book you are reviewing,

should be a full citation of the work, with the author name,
full title, place of publication, publisher and year.
For example:
Jahanara Imam, of blood and fire, Dhaka: university press
limited, 1998.

(allow the Word program to align the sentence automatically

when you write in the footnote)
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO FOOTNOTE

6) For articles:
For example:
S.I. Chowdhury, ‘Aspects of Bengali Nationalism,’ Journal of Asian Studies, Volume 2, 1 Quarterly edition,
1998, pp. 25 – 42.
For example:
Ma Huan (Geo Phillips, translator), ‘Bengal through Chinese Eyes,’ Royal Asiatic Society (London), 1895, pp. 1
– 6.
(allow the word program to align the sentence automatically when you write in the footnote)
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO USE FOOTNOTES

7) Once you have cited a source in full, the next time you
only need to use their name, unless you are also using
another book by the same author, in which case you will have
to use the name and main title to differentiate:
For example:
Imam, Of Blood and Fire
Imam, Bir Shrestho (Bengali text)
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO USE FOOTNOTES

8) numbering:
For example:
Imam, page 15.
Imam, introduction, page ix.

if you are citing a page number with the first full citation, then do so
and complete with the full stop.
(always use normal spelling in the footnotes)
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO USE FOOTNOTES

9) Use of ‘ibid’.
Ibid is a Latin term that roughly translates to ‘follows from the
previous’
If you are continuously citing the same source, the work you are
reviewing for example, you may use ‘ibid’ and the page number.
When you cite a different source and then go back to the source for
which you were using ibid, you must give the name again to avoid
confusion:
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO USE FOOTNOTES

9) Ibid usage continued:

For example:

imam, of blood and fire, page 15.

Ibid., page 17.
Chatterji, the right of way, page 45.
Imam, of blood and fire, page 33.
 Emergence of Bangladesh Course:
Book Review Guidelines for students:
HOW TO USE FOOTNOTES

10) These are some of the basic footnoting requirements and additional
variations and inquiries will be addressed by your individual course
instructor.

IMPORTANT: remember that you must cite all instances of ideas,

statements, paraphrased statements and direct quotes using footnotes.
Again, if you are unclear, then consult your course instructor.