2. BY THE END OF THE LESSON, YOU WILL
HAVE BEEN ABLE TO
• Determine the purpose of a book review
or article critique;
• Define the context for a book review or
article critique;
• Analyze the features of a book review
or article critique;
• Use transitions to connect ideas; and
3. WHAT IS A BOOK
REVIEW OR ARTICLE
CRITIQUE
• it is a specialized form of academic
writing in which a reviewer evaluates
the contribution to knowledge of
scholarly works.
• it is a critical assessment , analysis, or
eveluation of work.
• it involves your skills in critical thinking
and recognizing arguments.
4. • it involves your skills in critical thinking
and recignizing arguments.
• it is usually ranges from 250 to 750
words.
• it aims to offer a persuasive opinion
and addresses a more specific
audience.
• book and article reviews use both
proof and logical reasoning to
substantiate their opinion.
6. • Tittle of the book/article
• Writer's name
• Writer's thesis statement
INTRODUCTION (AROUND 5% OF
THE PAPER)
7. • Writer's objective or purpose
• Methods used ( if applicable)
• Major findings or claims
SUMMARY (AROUND 10% OF THE
PAPER)
8. • Appropriateness of
methodology to support the
arguments
• Theoretical soundness
REVIEW/CRITIQUE (IN NO PARTICULAR
ORDER) (AROUND 75% OF THE PAPER)
9. • Soundness of explanation in
relation to other available
information and experts
• Sufficiency of explanation
• Other perspectives in
explaining the concept and
ideas
• Coherence of ideas
10. • Overall impression of the work
• Scholarly value of the
reviewed article/book
• Benefits to the intended
audience
• Suggestion for future
directions
CONCLUSION ( AROUND 10% OF THE
PAPER)
11. WHEN WRITING A
BOOK REVIEW OR
ARTICLE
CRITUQUE, MAKE
SURE TO ASK THE
FOLLOWING:
12. 1. WHAT IS THE TOPIC OF THE BOOK OR ARTICLE?
2. WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE?
3. WHO ARE ITS INTENDED READERS?
4.DOES THE WRITER EXPLICITLY STATE HIS/HER
THESIS STATEMENT?
5.WHAT THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS (i.e., A
SCIENTIFIC/LOGICAL EXPLANATION WITHOUT
EVIDENCE ) ARE METIONED IN THE BOOK OR
ARTICLE? ARE THEY EXPLICIT DISCUSSED?
13. 6. WHAT ARE THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE BOOK
OR ARTICLE TO THE FIELD (e.g., language,
psychology) IT IS SITUATED IN?
7. WHAT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES ARE DISSCUSSED
IN THE BOOK OR ARTICLE?
8. WHAT KINDS OF INFORMATION (e.g., observation,
survey, statistics, historical accounts) ARE PRESENTED
IN THE BOOK OR ARTICLE? HOW ARE THEY USED
TO SUPPORT THE ARGUMENTS OR THESIS?
14. 9. ARE THERE OTHER WAYS OF SUPPORTING THE
ARGUMENTS OR THESIS ASIDE FROM THE
INFORMATION USED IN THE BOOK OR ARTICLE? IS
THE AUTHOR SILENT ABOUT THESE ALTERNATIVE
WAYS OF EXPLANATION?
10. WHAT IS YOUR OVERALL REACTION TO THE
WORK?
16. 1.READ THE ARTICLE OR BOOK TO BE
REVIEWED CAREFULLY TO GET ITS MAIN
CONCEPT.
2. REREAD TO GET THE ARGUMENTS BEING
PRESENTED.
3. RELATE THE CONTENT OF THE ARTICLE OR
BOOK TO WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT
THE TOPIC. THIS WILL MAKE YOU MORE
ENGAGED WITH THE ARTICLE OR BOOK.
17. 4. FOCUS ON DISCUSSING HOW THE BOOK
TREATS THE TOPIC AND NOT THE TOPIC ITSELF.
5. SITUATE YOUR REVIEW. THIS MEANS THAT
YOUR ANALYSIS SHOULD BE ANCHORED ON
THE THEORIES PRESENTED BY THE BOOK OR
ARTICLE WRITE.
6. EXAMINE WHETHER THE FINDINGS ARE
ADEQUATELY SUPPORTED OR NOT.
18. 7. ANALYZE THE TYPE OF ANALYSIS THE
WRITER USED (e.g., quatitative, qualitative, case
study and how its supports the arguments and claims.
8. SUGGEST SOME WAYS ON HOW THE WRITER
CAN IMPROVE HIS/HER REASONING OR
EXPLANATION.
9. DISCUSS HOW THE SAME TOPIC IS EXPLAINED
FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE. COMPARE THE
WRITER'S EXPLANATION OF THE TOPIC TO
ANOTHER EXPERT FROM THE SAME FIELD OF
STUDY.
19. 10. POINT OUT OTHER CONCLUSIONS OR
INTERPRETATIONS THAT THE WRITER MISSED OUT.
PRESENT OTHER IDEAS THAT NEED TO BE
EXAMINED.
11. EXAMINE THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN IDEAS
AND HOW THEY AFFECT THE CONCLUSION AND
FINDINGS.
12. SHOW YOUR REACTION TO THE WRITER'S IDEAS
AND PRESENT AN EXPLANATION.
13. SUGGEST SOME ALTERNATIVE METHODS AND
PROCESSES OF REASONING THAT WOULD RESULT
20. Analyze the following text very carefully.
Teen pregnancy is a social problem not resolved in developing and some developed
countries. Adolescent fecundity has become the most exact bio-demographic and health
indicator of development. In developing countries that are expected to follow the sexual
behaviour patterns of developed countries, without offering the levels of education and
services for adolescents, the consequences will be adolescent fecundity and STI
prevalence increase. The ignorance about sexuality and reproduction both in parents,
teachers and adolescents increases the early initiation of coital relations and of unwanted
pregnancies. Extreme poverty and being the son or daughter of an adolescent mother are
risk factors of repeating the early pregnancy model. The application of predictive risk
criteria in pregnant adolescents to facilitate the rational use of Health Services to diminish
the maternal and perinatal mortality is discussed as well as the social factors associated
with adolescent pregnancy as socioeconomic levels, structure - types and characteristics of
the family, early leaving school, schooling after delivery, female employment, lack of sexual
education, parental and family attitudes in different periods of adolescent pregnancy,
21. Social consequences are analyzed as: incomplete education, more numerous families,
difficulties in maternal role, abandonment by the partner, fewer possibilities of having a stable,
qualified and well- paid job, greater difficulty in improving their socioeconomic level and less
probability of social advancement, lack of protection of the recognition of the child. Finally,
based on evidence, some measures that can reduce adverse consequences on adolescent
mothers, fathers and their children are suggested.
Type of Document: Descriptive/Informative Document
Purpose of the Review: To inform the readers of what will be the effects of
teenage pregnancy that was indicated in the paper.
Writer's Persona: The writers provide facts and evidence based to
support their claims on the negative effect of teenage
pregnancy.
Intended Reader: The intended reader can be anyone or student.
Strengths: The writers was truthful on their critique.
Weaknesses: Wrong use of words, grammatically incorrect and
misspelled words.
22. Part A: Analyze the following text very carefully.
Then, complete the table that follows.
This paper purports to assess the linguistic complexity of students' narratives and
reading texts. However, the authors never stated the purpose behind the study. The
authors provide no motivations and goals for the study, no research questions, no strong
methodological practices, and very few findings that can be easily interpreted. While
reading the study, every new sentence is a surprise. There are no details and the entire
paper is completely under referenced.
Below I will discuss some of the major problems with the paper. First, the authors
never provide a rationale for their study. They never give a reason as to why they are
studying reading and writing together and they fail to link the two skills. The authors
assume that the reader knows the narrative and made no attempt to assist them in
developing the narrative of the paper. Another major problem with the paper is the naiveté
that is apparent in the literature review, the methods, and the analysis. The literature
23. It is interesting that the language background of the participants is never made
explicit(participants are at the mid beginners to high beginners level in using English as a
second language). The extent to which any results found in the study would be widely
generalizable to what is typically conceived as an EFL/ESL learner is not clear. Moreover,
the authors continually draw on literature meant for an L1 acquisition audience and
therefore of dubious extension toL2 contexts.
The methods section contains no details at all. Ten participants per grade level, in a
stratified random sample, hardly seemed enough to get much stable data. Since, there are
only ten participants per grade level on both accredited and non-accredited schools due to
logistical constraints; the paper is more on exploratory study. In other words, it seems a
stretch to ask most journal readers to generalize from such a limited sample from such a
specific population. The authors state that "pupils were not given limits as to time and
number of words, for them to be relaxed in their narrative production" (p.5). However, later
the authors explain that those written data also form the basis of the corpus used for
analysis. How does this differential production affect the results of the analysis? Surely, a
participant who produces 1,000 words will have different results from one who produce
500. It is not clear how the authors can assert any sort of pattern from linguistic 'snapshot'
24. In general, the paper is hard to read. This likely goes back to the lack of research
problems. There are few transitions and, organizationally, the paper does not set up any
expectations for the reader. The first paragraph is a great example because it contains a
single sentence and at least five different clauses. The final paragraph in the introduction
(right before the methods sections) is another example. I have read that paragraph four
times and am not sure how to process it.
There are major problems with this paper, but I do not have a time or the energy to
discuss them all. The authors really need to rethink the purpose of the collected data and
educate themselves in the field of L2 reading and writing. I would highly suggest that the
authors reread issues of the journal of Second Language Writing and Reading in a Foreign
Language.
26. Write T if the statement is true and F if false.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
1. A REVIEW OR A CRITIQUE INVOLVES HIGHER-ORDER THINKING SKILLS.
2. A BOOK DESCRIPTION IS SIMILAR TO A BOOK REVIEW.
3. A BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE CRITIQUE USES THE SAME ORGANIZATION OF IDEAS.
4. A BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE CRITIQUE PRESENTS THE STRENGTHS AND
WEAKNESSES OF A READING MATERIAL.
5. A BOOK REVIEW IS EXCLUSIVE FOR PROFESSIONALS.
27. 6. MORE THAN HALF OF THE REVIEW SHOULD BE DEVOTED TO THE
SUMMARY.
7. THE NAME OF THE AUTHOR AND TITLE OF THE REVIEWED ARTICLE IS
PLACED AT THE END
OF THE ARTICLE CRITIQUE.
8. THE PURPOSE OF AN ARTICLE CRITIQUE IS TO INFORM AND PERSUADE
READERS.
9. THE REVIEWER'S OVERALL IMPRESSION OF THE WORK SHOULD BE
PLACED IN THE INTRODUCTION.
10. WHEN REVIEWING A BOOK OR ARTICLE, ONLY ONE PERSPECTIVE
SHOULD BE USED.