Your review should be based on a recent book on human evolutionary biology selected from the list on the course website (http://www.pinniped.net/anth250.html). Your critical book review is due Tuesday, April 22. All papers turned in after this date will be considered late—this will be reflected in your grade. This assignment is worth 30% of your grade in the course.
The first component of the review should consist of a summary of the major themes of the book. This section should be roughly 1-2 pages.
The second component of the paper and the reason it’s a critical book review should consist of your analysis and critique of the book. This critique should integrate material from class lectures and from the textbook. You are welcome to integrate material from outside the class as long as it is appropriate (i.e., it must be relevant to the review and it should come from a scholarly journal or book). Please note that you are not required to include source material from outside the course.
In this section, you may want to include an analysis of how the information in the book was gathered and how this information was conveyed to the reader. Do you feel that the author was successful in the presentation of his/her argument? Why or why not? You might think about addressing the author’s goal in writing the book. How does this book relate to issues we discussed in class? Does it present a similar or different view? You could also address the implications of the material for future research, or the social implications of the work.
Your paper should be a minimum of 5-6 typed pages (double-spaced); longer is not necessarily better. Please use standard font size (10-12 pt.) and margins (approximately 1 inch on all sides) and include a title page with an original title (not just the name of the book), your name, and the course information. The title page should not be counted towards the minimum page length of the paper. Also, please include page numbers.
You should include a “References Cited” section in your paper. This is essentially the same as a bibliography but should only include sources that you cite (i.e., summarize in your own words) in the paper. At a minimum you should include the full citation of the book that you are reviewing. References may include class lectures, the textbook, or additional scholarly sources from outside the class that you feel are appropriate. There may be appropriate material on the Internet, but often it is difficult to find because of the endless amounts of inaccurate information. If you choose to cite an on-line source, make sure that it is appropriate (i.e., scholarly and not just some guy who happens to find chimps interesting and can afford the $20 a year for a website) and that you include information on where and when it was accessed. Citations within the paper should be given by author’s name and year of publication. The following is an example:
This period brought about major changes for the Yakut, including social transformations of an unprecedented magnitude and dietary shifts that increased intake of market foods high in refined sugars and saturated fats (Slezkine 1994).
Please limit your use of quotations (it is better to summarize in your own words) and use them only when absolutely necessary. If you use a quote, cite as indicated in the instructions above, but additionally include the page number of the book where the quote originated. The following is an example:
According to Kurland and Pearson: “those species that deviate in either direction from the expectations of the Jarman-Bell relationship would be expected to be hypometabolic” (Kurland and Pearson 1986: 447).
Your source material should be included in the “References Cited” section (listed alphabetically by the author’s last name) in the format of the following examples:
Craumer, P.R. 1994. Regional patterns of agricultural reform in Russia. Post-Soviet Geography 35: 329-351.
Forsyth, J. 1992. A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia’s Asian Colony 1581-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Godin, G. and Shephard, R.J. 1973. Activity patterns of the Canadian Eskimo. In: O.G. Edholm and E.K.E. Gunderson (eds.) Human Polar Biology. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, pp. 193-215.
Make sure to proofread your paper carefully for spelling and grammatical errors. Although the content of the paper is the most important part of this assignment, you will also be graded on organization, clarity of presentation, and mechanics. A good paper requires more than one draft. We are happy to read drafts of book reviews as long as we are given adequate time (no less than three days before the due date).
**If you have any questions about what to include or not to include in your paper or if you need help coming up with ideas to discuss in your paper, please contact us.**