Brenda and the Love Ladies

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 s?r?pt 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 doesn?t.? ? 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 ?Miner’s article was written in the 1950s.? However, saying ?Miner’s arguing that people should be cultural relativists? is incorrect. In that case ?Miner’s? is not possessive but is an incorrect substitute for ?Miner is.? To provide another example, if you say ?Dr. Kerley?s going to his house? that is incorrect (it should be ?Dr. Kerley is?). However, if you say ?we are going to Dr. Kerley?s 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 else?s 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.