1.
It is an evaluation report of
previous studies related to the
subject matter of an academic
paper.
A.Book Review
B. Literature Review
C.Article Review
D.Movie Review
2. It is a problem-solution text that aims to
persuade its reader to grant funding on the
project.
A.Project Proposal C. Project Material
B. Project cost D. Project Budget
3. It is a critical assessment, analysis, or
evaluation of a work.
A.Book Review C. Article Review
B. Literature Review D. Movie Review
4. It is an expanded paper that presents
interpretations and analysis of a
phenomenon based on experiments and
previous information.
A.Book Report C. Scientific Report
B. Research Report D. Survey Report
5. It contains a summary and synthesis of
all available sources.
A.Book Review C. Article Review
B. Literature Review D. Movie Review
6. The main purpose of this writing is to
persuade book readers of a particular genre
or researchers in a specific field.
A.Article Review C. Book Review
B. Literature Review D. Movie Review
7. It expresses a writers position on an issue
and the reasons for the writer’s stand.
A. Review Paper C. Position Paper
B. Book Paper D. Term Paper
8. It has a purpose to persuade or make the
readers believe that writer’s opinion is
probable or should be considered by a
decision-making group.
A.Position Paper C. Book Paper
B. Review Paper D. Term paper
9. It is a laborious work produced trough
formal investigation and scientific inquiry.
A.Book Report C. Scientific Report
B. Research Report D. Survey Report
10. It is highly persuasive and informative
document that aims to address a particular
problem or issue.
A.Project Proposal C. Project Material
B. Project Cost D. Project Budget
11. This is a form of criticism in which a
book is analyzed based on content, style,
and merit.
A.Book Review C. Literature Review
B. Position Paper D. Research Report
12. This is an essay that present an opinion
about an issue, typically that the author or
another specific entry, such as political
party.
A.Book Review C. Research Report
B. Position Paper D. Project Proposal
13. This is a detailed description of a series
of activities aimed at solving a certain
problem.
A.Book Review C. Research Report
B. Position Paper D. Project Proposal
14. This is a written document or oral
presentation based on a written document
that communicates the purpose, scope,
objectives, hypotheses, methodology,
findings, limitations and recommendations.
A.Book Review C. Research Report
B. Position Paper D. Project Proposal
15. This is the objective analysis of a literary or
scientific article that emphasizes on whether or
not the author supported his main points with
reasonable and applicable arguments based on
facts.
A.Book Review C. Literature Review
B. Article Critique D. Research Repot
KOBO WERIVE
CLEARIT WERIVE
BOOK REVIEW
OR
ARTICLE REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE REVIEW
is a specialized form of academic writing in
which a reviewer evaluates the contribution to
knowledge of scholarly works such as academic
books and journal article.
BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE REVIEW
usually ranges from 250 to 750 words, is not
simply a summary.
It is a critical assessment, analysis, or evaluation
of a work.
BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE REVIEW
Book and article reviewers do not just share mere
opinion, rather, they use both proofs and logical
reasoning to substantiate their opinions.
BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE REVIEW
They process ideas and theories, revisit and
extend ideas in a specific field of study, and
present analytical responses.
“
STRUCTURE OF A
BOOK REVIEW OR ”
ARTICLE REVIEW
(Introduction (around 5% of the paper)
Title of the book/article
Writer's name
Writer’s thesis statement
“
Summary ”
(around 10% of the paper)
Writer's objective or purpose
Methods used (if applicable)
Major findings or claims
“
Review/Critique
(in no particular order) ”
(Around 75% of the paper)
Appropriateness of methodology to support the
arguments
Theoretical soundness
Soundness of explanation in relation to other available
information and experts
Sufficiency of explanation
Other perspectives in explaining the concepts and ideas
Coherence of ideas
“
Conclusion ”
(around 10% of the paper)
Overall impression of the work
Scholarly value of the reviewed
article/book
Benefits to the intended audience
Suggestion for future directions
“
When writing a book
review or article critique, ”
make sure to ask the
following:
1. What is the topic of the book or
article?
2. What is its purpose?
3. Who are its intended readers?
4. Does the writer explicitly state
his/her thesis statement?
5. What theoretical assumptions (i.e,
a scientific/logical explanation
without evidence) are mentioned in
the book or article? Are they
explicitly discussed?
6. What are the contributions of
the book or article to the field
(e.g., language, psychology) it is
situated in?
7. What problems and issues are
discussed in the book or article?
8. What kind of information (e.g.,
observation, survey, statistics, and
historical accounts) are presented in
the book or article? How they are
used to support the arguments of
thesis?
9. Are there other ways of supporting the
arguments or thesis aside from the
information used in the book or article? Is
the author silent about these alternative ways
of explanation?
10. What is your overall reaction to the
work?
“
Guidelines in Writing a
Book Review or Article ”
Critique
1. Read the article or book to be reviewed
carefully to get its main concept.
2. Reread it to get the arguments being
presented.
3. Relate the content of the article or book
to what you already know about the topic.
This will make you more engaged with the
article or book.
4. Focus on discussing how the book treats
the topic and not a topic itself. Start your
sentences with phrases such as "this book
presents…’’ and "The author argues…’’
5. Situate your review This means that your
analysis should be anchored or the theories
presented by the book or article writer.
6. Examine whether the findings are
adequately supported or not.
7. Analyzed the type of analysis the writer
use (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, case
study) and how its supports the arguments
and claims.
8. Suggest some ways on how the writer can
improve his/her reasoning or explanation.
9. Discuss how the same topic is explained
from other perspective. Compare the
writer's explanation of the topic to another
expert from the same field of study.
10. Point out other conclusion or
interpretations that the writer missed out.
Present other ideas that need to be examined.
11. Examine the connections between ideas
and how they affect the conclusions and
findings.
12. Show your reactions to the writer's idea
and present an explanation. You can either
agree or disagree with the ideas, as long as
you can sufficiently support your stand.
13. Suggest some alternative methods and
processes of reasoning that would result in a
more conclusive interpretation.
Completing a book review or article critique means that
you can pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of an
article or book and that you can identify different
perspectives.
This task also equips you with more skills to engage in
discussions with an expert and makes you a part of a
community of scholars.
In writing a review/critique you must.
1. Provide a summary of the contents of the piece of
writing under review,
2. Provide a general evaluation of the text,
3. Discuss each point you want to make about the text; and
4. Conclude by telling the readers if the text is worth
reading or not. In addition, you must polish your writing
by considering the properties of a well written text.
Activity 1: Write T if the statement
is true and F if false
__1. A review or a critique involves higher-order
thinking skills.
__2. A book description is similar to a book review.
__3. A book review or article critique uses the
organization of ideas.
__4 A book review or article critique presents the
strengths and weaknesses of a reading material.
__5. A book review is exclusive for professionals.
__6. More than half of the review should be devoted to
the summary.
__7 The name of the author and title of the reviewed
article is placed at the end of article critique.
__8. The purpose of an article critique is to inform and
persuade readers.
__9. The reviewer’s overall impression of the work
should be placed in the introduction
__10. When reviewing a book or article only one
perspective should be used.
Activity 2:
Analyze the following
text very carefully.
Then, complete the table that follows.
This paper purports to assess the linguistic
complexity of students’ narratives and reading texts.
However, the authors never stated the purpose
behind the study. The authors provide no motivations
and goals for the study, no research questions, no
strong methodological practices, and very few
findings that can be easily interpreted. While reading
the study, every new sentence is surprise. There are
no details and the entire paper is completely under
referenced.
Below I will discuss some of the major problems with the paper.
First, the authors never provide a rationale for their study. They
never give a reason as to why they are studying reading and writing
together and they fail to link the two skills. The authors assume that
the reader knows the narrative and made no attempt to assist them
in developing the narrative of the paper. Another major problem
with the paper is the naiveté that is apparent in the literature review,
the methods, and the analysis. The literature review is perhaps two
pages long and boost up on their knowledge of L2 writing and
reading theory before they submit a paper to a professional journal.
It is interesting that the language background of the
participants is never made explicit (participants are at
the mid beginners to high beginners’ level in using
English is a second language). The extent to which
any results found in the study would be widely
generalizable to what is typically conceived as an
EFL/ESL learner is not clear. Moreover, the author
continually draws on literature meant for an L1
acquisition audience and therefore of dubious
extension to L2 contexts.
The methods section contains no details at all. Ten
participants per grade level, in a stratified random sample,
hardly seemed enough to get much stable data. Since,
there are only ten participants per grade level on both
accredited and non-accredited schools due to logistical
constraints; the paper is more on exploratory study. In other
words, it seems a stretch to ask most journal readers to
generalize from such a limited sample from such a specific
population. The authors state that “pupils were not given
limits as to time and number of words, for them to be
relaxed in their narrative production” (p.5).
However, later the authors explain that those written
data also form the basis of the corpus used for
analysis. How does this differential production affect
the results of the analysis? Surely, a participant who
produces 1,000 words will have different results from
one who produce 500. It is not clear how the authors
can assert any sort of pattern from linguistic
‘snapshot’ from just 10 students per school,
producing such heterogeneous data samples. Again,
from such a modest sample.
In general, the paper is hard to read. This likely goes
back to the lack of research problems. There are few
transitions and, organizationally, the paper does not
set up any expectations for the reader. The first
paragraph is a great example because it contains a
single sentence and at least five different clauses.
The final paragraph in the introduction (right before
the methods sections) is another example I have
read that paragraph four times and am not sure how
to process it.
There are major problems with this paper, but I do
not have a time or the energy to discuss them all.
The authors really need to rethink the purpose of
the collected data and educate themselves in the
field of L2 reading and writing. I would highly
suggest that the authors reread issues of the journal
of Second Language Writing and Reading in a
Foreign Language.
Activity 3: Write a book review by following
the writing process outlined below. You may
assume the persona of a university professor
writing a review for a particular book or
article in your chosen field.
