The Two-book Written and Oral Report

Prof. Childs

Responsibilities

Of the reviewer: You are to follow all of the guidelines below carefully and submit copies of your reviews and discussion to your fellow students on time.

Of the colloquium participants: You are to read carefully each of the reviews and discussions before the class meeting. You should arrive in class with questions that relate to the themes of the course.

Purpose

The assignment asks you to read two books, write a separate report for each (following strict guidelines!), compose a page or two of written discussion in which you relate both books to one another and to the weekly readings and major themes of the course, and present an oral report in which you highlight your major points and field questions from colloquium participants.

This assignment is intended to help you gain experience in how to read and understand and to compare and contrast two books. A related purpose involves how to write clear and concise prose (the guidelines are rather rigid; you will have to rewrite your drafts to fit your information into the format—this will force you to be clear and concise). Still a third purpose is to furnish you and your fellow students with short yet informative reviews of important books in the field(s).

These reports will be guides for your fellow students who have not read the books, but who desire to become “familiar” with them. Thus, you should remind yourself that directness and clarity are valued highly in this assignment.

The Written Portion

General instructions

First, read over the “sample” written report. Note the seven structural divisions for each book review. Your report must have all of these and in this order. Note that except in the biographical, scope and source sections, complete sentences are used.

The “Discussion” page(s) include elaborations of points found on the one-page review, as well as issues not raised in the one-page review. The organization of the discussion is more open to your inclinations than is the one-page review of each book. The essence of each book and the weekly topics and course themes should guide you in composing the discussion. Topics for possible inclusion in the discussion are: prominent/questionable theses; documentation; organization and style of presentation; significance to historiography; etc. You may use up to two pages (single spaced) for your “Discussion.”

Specific instructions

1. Each review will appear on one side of one page only, contain suitable margins, and include each of the seven descriptive items. (Do not use more than one page per book; do not assume that you can extend the report of one book to the next page and simply cut short the second book.) The Discussion may appear on the front and back of one page. All pages should be stapled together. Use type size PT 11 or larger.

2. Please avoid the following:

a) “passive” constructions (the use of the passive confuses the reader and suggests the writer has not thought out exactly what s/he wants to say);

b) “due to” (this is bad form and is usually used incorrectly—use “derived from” or “because” or some similar phrase);

c) contractions (“he’ll,” “doesn’t,” etc.);

d) “lead” when you mean “led”

e) excessive quotations from the books.

4. You must:

a) use page numbers when quoting from the book or reviews.

b) consult at least 3 reviews of each book.

5. In the “Importance” section of the one-page review, as well as in the “Discussion,” be sure to relate the books to the historiography and to the themes of the course.

The Oral Presentation

Most of the oral presentation will consist of you answering questions from your fellow students.

You will take no more than 5 minutes to relate the specifics of the books to the themes of the course and the common readings. I will cut you off after five minutes! (Students have consistently complained about overly-long, wandering, unfocused oral reports.) In your presentation, try to stimulate the discussion that is supposed to follow; you should not say, “Well, are there any questions?” Rather, try to come up with something provocative to get the discussion going.

A final note

In order to do the best that you can on this assignment, you will need to read the two books AND the weekly reading well before the assignment is due. I encourage you to see me before your report is due to discuss your work.