Compose an academic book review for either:   Kashi, Ed. 2008. Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta. powerHouse Books: New York.                              OR

Compose an academic book review for either:

Kashi, Ed. 2008. Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta. powerHouse

Books: New York.

OR

Grandia, Liza. 2012. Enclosed: Conservation, Cattle, and Commerce Among the Q’eqchi’

Maya Lowlanders. University of Washington Press: Seattle, WA.

The response should be 4-5 pages in length (1450 words)—Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, double-spaced. The analytical essay should be written as a reflective response to the prompt below. All opinions stated need to be supported by examples and all claims supported by evidence. This is a formal paper, meaning no personal pronouns, contractions or colloquialisms. This is social turbulence class.

An academic book review should identify and evaluate the author’s thesis (i.e., does the author achieve the stated purpose of the book?), a brief summary of the argument, an analysis of the book’s strengths and weaknesses. Common mistakes to avoid: do not just summarize, do not try to cover everything in the book (organize, synthesize, etc.), and do not use too many quotes. Judge the book by its intentions, not yours. In other words, do not criticize the author for not writing the book you think they should have written (you will have time in the discussion board for those types of comments).

Criteria for Evaluation

Is the stance/argument of the essay clearly stated?

Does the essay fully address the prompt?

Does the essay analyze and evaluate the text, not just summarize?

Are the ideas and opinions introduced in the essay well formulated?

Is evidence is used to support all claims and opinions?

Are the arguments presented in a clear and organized way?

Essay contains only limited grammatical errors, misspellings, and is written in academic style.

APA style of formatting only.