Book Report Assignment

This semester we are looking at Women’s Stories

Each student was asked to choose a book by a woman author or about a woman. The author needed to be alive and living in the Northern California and if the book was about a woman the woman profiled needed to be alive and also living here, the San Francisco Bay Area.

If the author is a woman, and you want to talk about her fiction writing, this is okay. I need to approve the book in advance so bring it in this week so you can start reading it. Most of the reading will be between now and over Spring Break; the essay is due shortly thereafter.

For each essay, students need to find three articles: a published book review or analysis, and for the author, if she is a woman, see if there is something on the author in Literary Criticism, (on-line in the Library Database and in COA library (public libraries as well). Third, find an article that addresses one of the themes in the book. Include all of these sources in your works cited page.

The essay will be 2-3 pages and in it you will summarize your book’s major themes and analyze them. If your author is the woman you are profiling, talk about her life and her source or impetus for writing the book you are sharing. If the book is a biography, feel free to tell us something about the author and how he or she comes to know the person he or she writes about. (Avoid plot summaries.)

Abstract
The presentation is weighted heavily here, so prepare well, and please include an abstract which includes the title of the book, the key points you plan to make and any arguments you’d like us to consider. Bring in copies for each student.

Book Report
Planning April 19___________
Planning Sheet, Outline, Thesis___________
First Draft Monday, April 23___________
Final Draft Wednesday, April 25 via email____________
Presentations: Monday-Wednesday, April 23-25___________

Book Report Presentations: Monday-Wednesday, April 23-25
Grade is an “A “for all presentations or “-0-“ for opting out. The presentation is a quarter of the grade for this assignment