Writing Critical Book Reviews

My Criteria

My criteria for for writing a critical review. Use this link to get the idea of what I want you to include in your essay.

Websites with ideas about writing a critical book review

Critical Reviews from the University of Wisconsin.
Writing Critical Book Reviews from Michael Kucher, a professor at the University of Washington - Tacoma.
A Concise Guide to Writing a Critical Book Review from the University of Alberta.
How to writing a critical Book Review from Carleton College.
The Book Review or Article Critique: General Guidelines (or in pdf format) from the University of Toronto.
How to Write a Book Review from Dalhousie University Library.
How to Write a Book Review from the Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Kentucky.
Book Reviews from University of North Carolina.
How to Write a Critical Article Review from the University College in the University of Maine System.
Writing guides from the University of Calgary. This link contains much useful information about writing other types of reports, for example, Annotated Bibliographies.

PDF formatted files:

This pdf file from The Writing Centre at Queen's University provides information about writing a critical book review.
The Book Review or Article Critique: General Guidelines from the University of Toronto. This links to the original pdf formatted file on the website from the University of Toronto.

Examples of Critical Book Reviews:

These examples are from a journal aimed specifically at scientists in Biology. These reviews are not geared to general audiences so the language may be hard for the general public to understand.

A critical book review by Randy Moore of the book Not In Our Classrooms edited by Eugenie C. Scott, NCSE's executive directorr.
Several examples of critical book reviews from BioScience, 57, 884-890, 2007.

Two examples of book reviews from the New York Times Book Review:

I include the following two reviews because they are reviews of science-oriented books and because the NYT Book Review is a popular supplement that many people read. Thus, the style and content of these reviews are for general audiences and should give you a good idea of the level you should be writing at.

The Unraveling, a review by Peter Dizikes of the book A Life Decoded, written by J. Craig Venter.
Look Who's Talking, a review by Emily Eakin of the book The First Work written by Christine Kennelaly.