One subject that I’m often asked to clarify for students is the writing of book reviews. In general book reviews should not be a mere description of the book – though it should include that. Some good questions to bear in mind when writing a review include:
- Who is the intended audience for the book? Scholars in the field or general readers?
- What is the author’s purpose in writing the book?
- What are the author’s central arguments?
- Is the book lacking information or argumentation that you expected to find?
- Are the ideas logically presented and easy to follow?
- What is the author’s style? Formal or informal? Is it appropriate to the intended audience?
- Are facts in the book accurate? You may need to check outside sources to determine accuracy. Note any errors or weak arguments.
- How do the ideas in the book relate to other ideas and arguments on the same topic? You may need to read other works in the field in order to make a comparison.
- Is the author’s point of view objective? Does the language used create bias?
Taken from here.
Other useful information can be found here, here and here.
And because this is an ethics unit, one key question to consider is:
- what type of ethical arguments (natural law, consequentialist, deontologist, virtue ethics … ) is the author using?
