ESOC 211 COLLABORATING

eSoc 211 Unit 2 Project

Evaluative Book Review and Reflective Cover Memo

The Book Review Assignment

In 2015, Geoff Colvin posited that “humans are underrated” and there were things that “high achievers know that brilliant machines never will.” However, with the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence available to both the consumer and corporation, are Colvin’s theories still relevant today? We want you to weigh in! Book reviews are an excellent way to begin publishing and circulating your ideas with a wider audience. Working within the genre of the book review will help you to hone your abilities to summarize the overall arguments of Geoff Colvin’s book and to examine their claims to significance today. Model reviews, which I have provided from other reviewers, showcase the genre of the evaluative book review in action.

For any reviewer the primary task is to establish the criteria you will use to evaluate the object under examination (be it a restaurant, a movie, a car, a national park, or a technical product). If this is your first book review, perhaps it is best to frame your review as an extended Amazon review of Colvin’s book. Consider the audience for this review to be a general reader who may have taken an online collaboration class like ours, not necessarily an academic audience.

An invitation to Experience Collaboration

You are invited to work in pairs on your review. I will not assign you to groups or teams, but I do encourage you to pair together to work smarter and not harder on this assignment. I do ask that you let me know if you have found a collaborative partner for the book review project via the ‘Find a Collaborative Partner for Major Unit Assignments’ D2L discussion space. You and your partner will submit identical work to the D2L Dropbox and will receive identical grades.

Overview of the Book Review Assignment

Think of the body of the book review as two parts: 1) an intelligent summary of the content, and 2) your reaction to the content. The summary portion should be no more than 1/3 of the writing, You can structure the review as you see fit within the following expectations:

With an introduction which sets up the book review and summary of your reaction (i.e., your main point or thesis).

With a body summarizing the chapters, each followed by a reaction. An alternative organization for the body could be a summary of the whole book followed by a lengthier reaction to it.

With a well-written conclusion that does not introduce new information, but rather summarizes the main points of the review and leaves the reader thinking.

Book Review Assignment Specifics

Before the introduction you should include bibliographic information of the source (title, author, publisher, date, etc.). In the introduction you will include an explanation of the following:

The author’s main purpose in writing the book.

The intended audience for the book.

1. The main point or thesis the author argues.
2. The larger cultural context in which the book was published and why the book is or is not relevant and timely.
3. The specific strategies Colvin uses to convince readers that he has ideas that merit our attention.

Further strategies for situating a book review introduction can include indications of your or the book’s point-of-view, commentary regarding the book’s overall style, or signposting commentary on how you will proceed with, outline, or approach your review of the book.

Your thesis must posit whether or not you would recommend this book to others and why.

The summary is an objective recalling of the main points of the chapters without your reaction focus instead on the techniques (e.g. QUESTION, case study presentation, narration, exposition, argument) that the author uses to support his thesis.

In the reaction portion of your review, you should describe how the book affected you. Focus on what you find convincing, interesting, surprising, well written, confusing, revealing, debatable, etc. Explain why you found it so, and try to relate it to your own life, school, and work experiences and understandings as support for these reactions. If you strongly disagree with the author’s points or arguments, you must try to provide factual counterevidence, not just a rant or your opinion. Always use evidence from the text under review or other texts and provide citations with specific page numbers.

1. In your conclusion you will remix your thoughts rather than simply restating them. What have you learned? Why does it matter? Come full circle with the review and leave the reader thinking. You may also announce directions researchers who are interested in collaboration and the success of the organizations and whole economies may wish to take in the future.
2. Overview of the Reflective Cover Memo
3. Your book review should include a reflective cover memo. The cover memo will describe what you have gleaned from a published review of another book that you have examined to learn more about how the genre of the book review works when it comes to summarizing arguments, analyzing their significance, and relating them to issues of importance for anyone interested in the question of what sets humans apart from machines and enables us to offer unique attributes to the workplace and to society more generally. You can find additional sample reviews in JSTOR and other library search engines using the advanced search function to restrict your search to book reviews.
4. As you read other reviews to develop criteria for assessing Colvin’s book, you will want to peruse the types of justifications other book reviewers use to define what makes for a good and positive, a bad or negative, or a mediocre reading experience. What did the book teach you and how did it impact your everyday life? What strategies does Colvin use to make his ideas about social interaction, interpersonal exchange, emotional aptitude, cognitive ability, and the rapidly changing economy and workforce understandable to general readers who care about the question “what will people do in the future better than computers?” (6).
5. Cover Memo Assignment Specifics

The reflective cover memo is designed for easy reading and quick assessment. It should include the following five paragraphs in numbered Q&A format:

An abstract of your book review in one paragraph.

One paragraph on why you selected a specific book review you did as a model to imitate with details about that review and what specific moves you mimicked. Include all bibliographic information of the model review (title, author, publisher, date, etc.) that inspired your review.

One paragraph on how you have framed your review to appeal to the audience and the target venue that you have selected for publication. What are the submission and publication guidelines for the journal or venue to which you will submit your review of Colvin’s book?

One paragraph where you use the model review as a point of comparison for assessing the overall approach you adopted in your own review. Do you recommend mimesis as an invention strategy reviewers need in their toolkit? If you chose not to imitate another reviewer’s form closely, provide a rationale for why you structured your review the way you did.

A cover memo does not require a formal conclusion; however, please close your memo with an analysis on the overall effectiveness of your review. What do you think you did best in your review? What aspect of your review will you continue to develop before you send it out for publication?