Slavery By Another name

Guidelines for the Essay Assignment:
Read: A book of your choice – it must be a secondary source (monograph), from the Approved Book List, found on Blackboard.

Choosing and reading a work:
1. Choose a topic that interests you. The number of pages in a book can be deceiving. You will write a much better review if you are captivated by the subject matter, regardless of the book length.

2. Take brief notes as you read.

3. Identify the author’s thesis. Historians do not just write facts, they argue a point. What is the author trying to argue? Often, though not always, the author will present their thesis in the book’s introduction, provide evidence in the chapters, and reiterate that thesis in the book’s conclusion.

4. Identify the author’s sources. Does the author incorporate both primary and secondary resources? Does the author site a variety of primary sources?

Writing the review:
1. Include your name, course number and name, date, and assignment in the upper left hand corner of the first page. This should be single-spaced. Example:

Jane Smith
HIST 1301
17 November 2018
Book Review

2. Below your personal information, include a title for your paper. This should be centered on that line or lines.

3. Use 12 point font, left alignment for the main body of your text. Only acceptable fonts – Times New Roman, Calibri, Cambria. The body should be double-spaced.

4. Begin the review with an introduction. Here, you want to introduce the topic, you can use information from the book itself, or you can also use outside sources, but the sources MUST be academic. These can be in the form of books or articles. To find these academic articles, utilize the ACC library webpage. Two good search engines to find articles are: Academic Search Complete and JSTOR. DO NOT USE NON-ACADEMIC SOURCES. This means no Wikipedia or similar websites. You MUST cite your work. This should also include a brief overview of the topic, author, and author’s thesis.

5. Summarize the book. While this section may comprise a good portion of your assignment, the summary should not be the entirety of your review. You can summarize the whole book, or pick two or three themes that the author discussed. Remember to show how these themes support the author’s thesis.

6. Analyze the book. Here is where you should give your opinions about the book. Keep these questions in mind: Did the evidence support the author’s thesis? Did the author convince you? Why or why not? What are the author’s biases? Was the writing clear and understandable? How did the author utilize primary and secondary sources? Were these sources adequate? Please do not tell me the book was boring. Instead, give examples of why the book was difficult to read.

7. Write a brief conclusion that succinctly ties together your introduction, summary, and analysis of the book.

8. Book reviews MUST be proofread for spelling and grammatical errors – 10% of the overall grade for the assignment.

9. Your paper must be at least 5 full pages. Do NOT go over 10 pages.

10. Use quotations sparingly, you should have no more than 4 in your paper. Each quotation MUST be cited.

11. Even if you do not use quotations, you MUST CITE YOUR WORK. At the very LEAST one citation per paragraph. You can use either MLA style OR Chicago style for your citations.

12. You MUST have a Works Cited page.

13. Do your own work! Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

14. To turn in the paper:
a. Save your paper to your computer or a flash drive. Please have your last name in the title.
b. Click on the link titled “Book Analysis Essay”
c. Follow the links to upload your paper