NUR2817C – Nursing Roles Practicum Critical Book Review of “Bed Number 10” by Su

NUR2817C – Nursing Roles Practicum
Critical Book Review of “Bed Number 10” by Sue Baier & Mary Zimmeth Schomaker
How to Write a Critical Book Review
You will write a 2-3-page critical book review in APA 7 th edition format. Your review has two
goals: first, to inform the reader about the content of the book, and second, to provide an
evaluation that gives your judgment of the book’s quality.
Your introduction should include an overview of the book which includes a short summary and a
sense of your general judgment. This is the equivalent to a thesis statement. Do not spend more
than one-fourth of the paper summarizing the book. The summary should consist of a discussion
and highlights of the major themes, ideas, and characteristics of the book. While you may use
direct quotes from the book (make sure you always give the page number using the appropriate
APA in-text citation), such quotes should never be the bulk of the summary. Much of your grade
will depend on how well you describe and explain the material IN YOUR OWN WORDS.
Throughout your summary, I want you to provide a critique of the book. A critique consists of
thoughts, responses, and reactions. It is not necessarily negative. The skills you need are an
ability to follow an argument and test a hypothesis. Regardless of how negative or positive your
critique is, you need to be able to justify and support your position.
Here are a number of questions that you can address as part of your critique. You need not
answer them all, but questions one and two are essential to any book review, so those must be
included. And these are ABSOLUTELY NOT to be answered one after another. Don’t have one
paragraph that answers one, and then the next paragraph that answers the next, etc. The answers
should be part of a carefully constructed essay, complete with topic sentences and transitions.
1. What is your overall opinion of the book? On what basis has this opinion been formulated?
That is, tell the reader what you think and how you arrived at this judgment. What did you expect
to learn when you picked up the book? To what extent – and how effectively – were your
expectations met? Did you nod in agreement (or off to sleep)? Did you wish you could talk back
to the author? Amplify upon and explain your reactions.
2. Identify the author’s thesis and explain it in your own words. How clearly and in what context
is it stated and, subsequently, developed? To what extent and how effectively (i.e., with what
kind of evidence) is this thesis proven? Use examples to amplify your responses. If arguments or
perspectives were missing, why do you think this might be?
3. What are the author’s aims? How well have they been achieved, especially with regard to the
way the book is organized? Are these aims supported or justified? (You might look back at the
introduction to the book for help).
4. What conclusions does the author reach and how clearly are they stated? Do these conclusions
follow from the thesis and aims and from the ways in which they were developed? In other
words, how effectively does the book come together?
5. Identify the assumptions made by the author in both the approach to and the writing of the
book. For example, what prior knowledge does the author expect readers to possess? How
effectively are those assumptions worked into the overall presentation? What assumptions do
you think should not have been made? Why?
6. Does the author’s presentation seem fair and accurate? Is the interpretation biased? Can you
detect any distortion, exaggeration, or diminishing of material? If so, for what purpose might this
have been done, and what effect does hit have on the overall presentation?
Questions derived from Robert Blackey, “Words to the Whys: Crafting Critical Book Reviews,”
The History Teacher, 27.2 (Feb. 1994): 159-66.
Adapted from S. Zabin and retrieved from
https://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/history/resources/study/criticalbookreview/
Submit your Critical Book Review Assignment:
1) To Blackboard through Safe Assign – A tool to Prevent Plagiarism. Submit your paper through
Black Board under Week 8. SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention tool that allows your
instructor to check the originality of a homework submission. SafeAssign automatically
conducts the check by comparing your assignment against a database of other assignment
submissions.