Book
Report Assignment
Social
Movements and Social Justice
Sociology/Anthropology
332
Objective
You
will write a book report on Jane McAlevey’s book, No
Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age.
The objective of this assignment is to help you (i) extend your
knowledge of a particular social movement or social movement issue,
(ii) identify, analyze, and describe major themes and evidences in
social movement literature, (iii) apply sociological theories and
concepts in social movement analysis, and (iv) communicate
sociological analysis of social movement literature through oral and
written expressions, (v), provide useful, theoretically-informed,
practical insights and assistance “to “movements that are not
moving.”
Description
Your
book report should be 8-9 typed pages long (double-spaced, one-inch
margins). Overall, your book report should focus on the central
argument(s) (thesis) of the book followed by a thorough description
of evidence presented in the book to back up the author’s claims.
In the introduction of the book report, you will identify the
author’s thesis and explain it in your own words. You will include
a brief introduction of the topic or the summary of the book to
provide a meaningful context for the thesis statement. In your
Introduction you will also tell the reader the three distinct pieces
of evidence or cases—that is, the three chapters from McAlevey,
each one is a case—that you will analyze in your report.
In
the next section you will analyze the evidence—the three cases. I
recommend providing a heading for each section (Ex: The Chicago
Teacher’s Strike) to let the reader know in advance what case you
are writing about. In these sections you will provide a review of the
case and in the process you will engage the author’s central
argument, and argue whether the evidence she has provided supports—or
does not support—her central claim. You are also encouraged to
bring in other concepts and theories we have used throughout the
semester—such as disruption—and show how they help illuminate the
case.
In
the conclusion, provide an overall assessment of the evidence the
author provided and whether it backs up the thesis.
Your
book report should include the following sections:
Title
page
Introduction
Identify
the thesis statement
Summarize
the background of the book/topic, and identify your three pieces of
evidence
Evidence
(Evidence 1, 2, & 3)
Describe
the evidence
Explain
how this evidence does or does not support the thesis statement.
Identify
and apply relevant sociological concepts and theories in the
description and explanation
IV.
Conclusion
Re-state
the thesis statement
Assess
the sociological analysis of evidences and their link to the thesis
statement
These
following questions may help you to orient your reading and writing.
What
is your overall opinion of the book? On what basis has this opinion
been formulated? What kind of evidence does the author provide to
make his or her points?
If
someone asked what this book is about or what have you learned
reading the book, what would you say?
Citation
All
you will need for sources is the McAlevey book, and other works
assigned for class. Therefore, for the report, when you cite from
texts or take ideas from them, you can simply use scientific
notation—examples, (McAlevey 2016: 10), (Piven 2006 :15), Nilsen
and Cox 2013: 65). You DO NOT need a separate bibliography page.