ENG 112 -- Thompson: Book Reviews vs. Literary Criticism

Book reviews:

• Give a brief overview of the plot followed by a surface viewpoint about the book.
• Short in length and discuss their opinion of the book, not themes or close examinations of the story.
• Written for a general, non-academic audience. Often uses "I" statements ("I enjoyed the book", "I appreciated this", etc.).
• Below is a sample book review about Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing:
  

One way of testing whether any source is reliable is to use the CRAAP Test.

Currency : How current is the information? Pay attention to when the book or article was published. Information in certain fields can become outdated quickly. All published materials, digital and physical should have a date of publication listed. Our library catalog and most databases offer some sort of date filtering that allows you to look for resources within a certain time period. 

Relevance : Is this information relevant for your paper? What is the point/agenda of the article? Is the information appropriate for your scholarly needs? Check for an abstract, or summary. Are there any subject terms or subject keywords provided? Do they match your research topic?  

Authority : Who is responsible for the information? What is the author's background? Does the info belong to a larger organization or website? Is the information peer-reviewed? Database articles may provide author affiliations, or list what organizations they are researching for. You can also perform a search on an author to see their credentials. Our databases will also include filters to remove non peer-reviewed resources.  

Accuracy : How accurate is the information? Is the information free of grammatical and spelling errors? Did the author include sources for their information? How comprehensive is the information? Scholarly works will always include references. And those references should point to other scholarly works. While non-academic sources may be listed--especially if the author is quoting a cultural figure--the majority of references should lead to other academic works.

Purpose: Why was the information created? Is the information biased in any way? Is it trying to sell you something? Note any advertisements included in your sources. Scholarly resources should never include ads.

Finding and evaluating sources on the web can be challenging. Be mindful of the domain name of the website you are using. Sites that end in .gov, .edu are generally trustworthy. Be critical of websites ending in .com, .net, and even some ending in .org. Be especially critical of sites ending in .com.co, as these are often fake websites. 

Literary criticism:

• Give a brief overview of the plot followed by a close examination of the themes in the story.
• Longer in length; often makes comparisons and references to other books and articles about similar topics.
• Written for an academic audience in a formal, third-person style.
• Below is literary criticism about Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing:

Find literary criticism by searching the databases for scholarly articles. 

• Search by the title of a particular work (ex: A Rose for Emily)
• Search by the author's name (ex: William Faulkner)
• Search for themes found in the work (ex: racism)

Find literary criticism in print books by searching the library catalog. 

• Search for the author's name under "subject" in the library catalog.
• Search for the author's name and criticism (ex: Jane Austen and criticism)
• Search other works by your author to explore similar themes.