It should be approximately eight double-spaced, typed pages. Please submit the paper on Blackboard (papers emailed to the instructor will not be accepted).
For this assignment, you are asked to write a critical review of a book by an eminent psychologist. After you have read the book, your paper should be a thoughtful analysis of the author’s work, rather than a simple summary of what the author had to say.
The purpose of this paper assignment is twofold. This paper should give you a chance to learn about an area of psychology that interests you in much greater detail than class time or your text will permit. The paper should also encourage you to think critically about the ideas of an important psychologist
As you discuss the author’s work, please be careful to include page numbers with any direct quotations that you make from the book. It is not required that you use other sources besides the book you are analyzing, but you may do so if you wish. If you do use additional resources, please be sure that you also reference all direct quotations and paraphrases from these sources, and include a bibliography or reference list at the end of your paper. Since this paper should be a critical analysis rather than a summary of the book you have read, please consider the following questions in your paper (some of these questions will apply more to some books than others – determining this and reporting on your analysis is part of the critical thinking required for this assignment):
1. Does the author cite adequate evidence to support his or her ideas? How convincing are the arguments of the author?
2. Does the author seem to approach the topic in an unbiased fashion? How scientific is the author in their approach to the material? What types of methods does the author use to discover new information? Are these methods the most appropriate way of studying the topic at hand? How else might a psychologist approach the author’s field of inquiry?
3. What is the applied value of the book’s central ideas or contribution to the knowledge base? In other words, should people outside of a university setting be concerned with what the, author has to say? Why or why not?
4. Are the ideas in the book dated in any way? How relevant in the book to the contemporary world in which we live?
5. If you become a professor of psychology, would you recommend that students read this book? If yes, why should students devote time to the author’s ideas? If no, how is the book flawed?
6. For all papers – how does the book that you have read relate or not relate to material that has been discussed so far this semester in class lectures? Does the book support ideas or information presented in class lectures? Does the book enhance your knowledge of psychology by covering significant material not discussed in class lectures? Please describe in some detail here how the book adds or does not add to information discussed in class. To complete this part of the assignment, it will obviously be important to have good attendance and take detailed notes during class lectures. Failure to complete this part of the assignment will result in a significantly lower grade on this paper.
7. The analysis discussed above should be supported with at least three brief, judiciously selected quotations from the book that you are analyzing. In other words, you should include at least three short, carefully chosen quotations in your paper. Please be cautious here, however, not to rely excessively on quotations. A short quotation in academic writing is generally no more than a few sentences. Your paper should primarily be your own analysis and writing – the quotations should provide some evidence to support important points that you are making, but should not replace a primary emphasis on your own work. Please be sure to reference your quotations appropriately, with page numbers, in either APA or MLA format. Also, please include a reference list or bibliography at the end, with a reference for the book you have analyzed (for most papers, this will be the only reference). This will allow readers to know the specific edition of the book from which you have quoted. The reference list or bibliography does not count in the page length of your paper.
Final Note on Paper #2: Before you turn in Paper #2, you are asked to take a very careful look at what you have written, reflect on your work, and revise the paper before you submit your essay. On a final page, please write a detailed paragraph indicating how you have reflected upon your writing and revised your work to improve your paper. For example, you may wish to discuss changes at the sentence level, paragraph structure, or the overall organization and composition of the paper. Or you may wish to discuss improvements to the content of your work. It may also be very helpful here to explain why you selected the particular quotations that you did to support your work. Please discuss how these changes improved the clarity and effectiveness of your writing. This “reflection” paragraph will be worth 7% of your grade on the assignment.