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Seminar on Records and Archives in Society

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Guide for Review Essays

Guidelines for Review Essays

Don't merely summarize! Analyze! You should provide a summary of the book, but a review essay is much more than a summary. Your review essay should place the work in a broader context of the relevant literature. A 2,000-2,500-word review essay is approximately eight to ten pages of double-spaced text, so you have plenty of room for historiographical analysis. Your goal is to write a review essay that would be suitable for publication in a refereed archival or historical journal. If you are not familiar with review essays, you should peruse historical or archival journals and read several examples.

  • What is the thesis, main point, argument, or purpose of the book?
  • Do you agree with the author's thesis? Disagree? Why?
  • How does this book relate to other material you have read, both for this course and elsewhere?
Does it introduce new ideas or concepts?
Does it complement other readings?
Does it reinforce ideas or information found elsewhere?
Does it contradict other readings?
  • What important questions or issues are not addressed?
  • What is your overall assessment of the significance and value of this book?

Write your review essay in clear, direct prose that would make it acceptable for publication in a professional archival or historical journal. Use footnotes or endnotes to cite relevant literature or attribute direct quotations. Use the style recommended in Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 5th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

You may use a title for your review essay if you like, but a title is not required.

Begin the essay with a separate paragraph that provides the relevant bibliographic information. Use the format shown in the following example.

The Public Record Office, 1838-1958. By John D. Cantwell. London: HMSO, 1991. x, 631 pp. ISBN 0 11 4402248. Appendices, bibliography, illustrations, and index.