Students enrolled in WRTG 527 (that is, the graduate students) will create a book review presentation video (at least eight minutes long, but no longer than 10 minutes) and to write a short (no longer than 1250 words) review essay. We will watch and discuss your videos as a class, so the primary audience for your presentation video will be your fellow students and me. None of us will likely be familiar with the book you choose, so your review needs to contain enough explanatory and summary information to help us understand they key points of the book without actually reading it ourselves. Your review should also include your reasons why you recommend– or not– other read the book.
The short review essay, which you will turn in to just me, should resemble the kinds of book reviews you might read in The New York Times and many other newspapers and magazines. Like the presentation, it should include your explanation of the book and your recommendation about others reading it. But note this is a short essay, a little less than five pages.
Here are some more details:
Since the number of graduate students in the course is small, we will probably want to meet– either via Zoom or f2f, whichever works best for everyone– to talk over the details. We’ll try to find a time that works for everyone in the first weeks of the course. But here are a few more details for now:
- I have several recommendations based on books I’ve read (or that I’m interested in reading myself) and I’m happy to share them with all of you. You also are welcome to select your own book, though I will need to approve of your choice. Everyone will need to review a different book.
- We have some flexibility in the schedule for when the presentation and essay will be due, but let’s tentatively plan for the week of November 17.
- Part of the goal/challenge of this assignment is figuring out how to do the video presentation. If you need any help to make a video like this, let me know. I’d encourage you to be creative and take advantage of the format of an edited, planned, scripted, and not live in one shot video. Also, be sure to keep to the required time limits.
- The short essay will cover the same territory of your video, but it shouldn’t be the script of your video. Rather, the essay should more closely resemble the kind of short review essays you might see on news sites and in print magazines.