Guidelines for Review Essay
This handout contains guidelines for the review essay of the book below. Recall that this
essay is worth 15 percent of your total course grade.
Spahn, Brenda and Irene Zutell. 2014. Miss Brenda and the Loveladies. Waterbook Press.
ISBN: 9780307732170.
These guidelines should be followed closely. Failure to follow them will result in a
significant deduction of points. Each essay should contain 4-6 double-spaced pages of
text (reference list not included in this total) and should include three elements. First,
provide a summary of the book. Focus on the most important information without trying
to summarize every single detail. Second, provide a 1-2 paragraph critique of the book.
Topics for critique might include the organization of chapters, authors writing style,
authors ability to summarize material, authors ability to make an argument, and overall
impact of the book. Be sure that you give specific examples in your critique. Third, pick
three (3) of our course readings and explain how what you learned from those readings
relates to content from the Spahn and Zutell book. Each chapter in the Johnson and
Kerley books counts as one reading, and all of the research articles count as one reading.
You will need to prepare a reference list and include it as the final page of your essay.
Formatting Guidelines:
Type your first and last name in the title of the Microsoft Word document. Do NOT
include a title page.
The first page of text should be numbered page 1.
Use Times New Roman srpt with a font size of 12 for the entire document.
Make the entire document double-spaced.
Tab once at the beginning of each new paragraph.
Do not include bullets, numbered lists, or drawings in your paper. Use only text.
Pick one referencing style and use it for in-text citations and for the reference page(s).
Margins should be at least one inch all around (most programs are preset this way).
Substantive Guidelines:
Be sure to define any major terms, concepts, or theories used in the paper.
Always use the spellchecker function in your word processing program to check for
spelling errors.
Always proofread your paper because there are many errors that the spellchecker will
not catch. For example, if you meant to use the word where but instead typed
were the spellchecker would not catch that.
Do not use contractions. It is better to say she does not than she doesnt.
Use only gender-neutral language. Thus, if you do not know the gender of someone,
do not use his or him. You can typically avoid this situation by using plural
pronouns.
2
Possessives, however, are fine to use, but be careful to place the apostrophe in the
right place. For example, it is correct to say Miners article was written in the
1950s. However, saying Miners arguing that people should be cultural relativists
is incorrect. In that case Miners is not possessive but is an incorrect substitute for
Miner is. To provide another example, if you say Dr. Kerleys going to his house
that is incorrect (it should be Dr. Kerley is). However, if you say we are going to
Dr. Kerleys class that is correct.
Unless asked for your opinion on a particular topic, use first-person terms like I or
we only sparingly.
Pay attention to the length of paragraphs. A paragraph that lasts one full page is too
long, while one that is only one sentence is too short. Generally, your paragraphs
should not be longer than one-half to three-fourths of a page.
Watch for grammatical errors in which an incorrect verb tense is used. For example,
she went to the game is correct, but she had went to the game is incorrect (it
should be had gone). Likewise, he was absent is correct, but they was absent is
incorrect (it should be they were).
Try to avoid using absolute terms like always, invariably, truth. We rarely deal with
absolutes, so use qualifiers like tends to, may influence, may lead to, or is correlated
with.
Along this same line, be careful not to make declarative statements for which you do
not have empirical support. For example, if you say All Florida Gator fans are
obnoxious, you have made a generalization that you cannot support with any
empirical evidence. Regardless of how strongly you believe in something, do not
make strong and absolute statements unless you have empirical information to
support it (the fact that your grandmother told you does not make the statement
valid).
Use direct quotations only sparingly, especially ones that are lengthy. Most of the
time, you should be able to paraphrase someone elses work and still make the same
point.
Try to be as concise and clear as possible when writing. Also, make sure there is a
flow to your writing. Each sentence should logically flow into the next and each
paragraph should flow to the next.
