A synopsis of the book J.H. Parry, in The Age of Reconnaissance
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Book Review
Select one book on an historical topic for your review. It must be non-fiction. It must also fall within the chronology and subject matter of the course and relate to one of the topics listed in the syllabus. See the Bibliography (under Course Documents) on the web site (you cannot do your report on the texts). You are not restricted to the Bibliography but must get approval for a book that is not. Please be sure to select a book on a specific subject that interests you. You will be required to hand in a 4-5 page (must be typewritten double-spaced) report plus cover page. There will be instructions posted for on-line submittal. See requirements for book analysis below.
1. On a separate cover sheet-Author, title, city published, publisher, date, your name, course title and my name. If you leave off the cover sheet with the required information I will deduct five points.
2. The purpose, aim, or goal of the author-What is he or she trying to prove or show? (simply to say an entertaining story is not sufficient). An author may have more than one aim or purpose. For example, J.H. Parry, in The Age of Reconnaissance, a book about European explorations of the world in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, had as one of his purposes the tie in with technical advances in map-making, navigation, and ship-board technology with European successes in world exploration. A result was that European superiority in ships gave her dominance in this area. Parry therefore spends much of his book on map-making and ship building technology.
3. A synopsis of the book-or what is it about. This should be the longest part of the book review.
4. A few words about the sources-what does the author base his information on (look at footnotes and bibliography)-were they primary documents or secondary sources or both? Provide a few examples,
5. In your opinion, did the author succeed or fail in his major purposes or aims in writing the book.
6. Spelling, grammar, and proper English usage counts so review what you hand in.
7. The report is due November 18th. Anything later will be penalized and failure to submit a report by the final exam will result in a two grade drop in your final grade. You may submit an earlier draft by November 15th to which I will grade but give you an opportunity for resubmittal.
8. You must get prior approval for the book you plan to read and write on so I am sure it is on an appropriate topic and is college level (at least 100 pages of text). If it is from the Bibliography send me the author and title via email and you can assume it is approved. If not from the Bibliography send me the author and title and I will see if I can get enough information from Amazon before I give approval or not. Please do this by September 30th.
9. In the preparation of your paper be forewarned that copying other persons work, whether directly from the internet or from any other source is considered plagiarizing which can earn you an F on the paper or an F in the course.
10. Please be sure to keep a copy of your report for backup purposes in case the original is misplaced or lost.
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