Comments on book reviews

[AlexReid]

Hello all, I am nearly done grading your book reviews, and I want to make some overall comments about the work you are doing. I think the discussions here have been quite good in trying to figure out what a review should look like. Some of you have managed to translate that into your work. Others haven't really managed that yet.

As such, I've attached a document I hope will help. It's the same sample review I wrote for you at the start. But I've included some comments describing the various parts, which I hope will give you further insight.

For example, you should be able to see that of the 977 words in the document, 127 words describe the three main characters, and another 56 words provide a brief synopsis of the plot. That's less than 1/5 of the review. What that means is that the review is really doing something other than talking about characters or plot.

I think this is something we have noted several times in our discussions and in my comments. That's the direction I want you to go in your review.

I should also note that if your final paper is dominated by character analysis and/or plot summary, you're going in the wrong direction. I've invited you to begin a discussion of your final paper, so I hope that we start to do that.

[Nicole Brady]

Thanks so much. You have no idea how helpful this was. I had read it, but with the comments it just helps to clarify what we should be doing.

[Megan Morrissey-Kelley]

"Some of you have managed to translate that into your work. Others haven't really managed that yet."
...that's nerve racking :) ! will we get them back before our next is due?

[Rachel Alexander]

Hi Megan,

I understand your frustration. I found my latest book review grade on WebCT (and was happier with my grade this time), but I think the lack of direct comments to our papers that the on-line course format necessitates is an obstacle to understanding what we should be doing differently. However, after our latest discussions and once I take a look at Dr. Reid's document here, I think I will feel confident enough to submit the last review and expect a decent grade. The final paper is a whole different matter...

[AlexReid]

Megan, I graded reviews last night. So you should have yours back.

[Megan Morrissey-Kelley]

Thanks, i got it when i opened the grade folder--it just wasn't showing up--for some reason it kept saying i had no new grades.

[Brittany]

Agreed! This has been EXTREMELY helpful! Even the word count breakdown (as I was spending WAY too much of my review on character and plot analysis)! Thanks again Dr. Reid for your guidence, patience, and understanding!

[Kelli Voltz]

For some reason my computer won't let me open this document...any suggestions?