Book Analysis/Précis Assignment
| Style | APA |
| Number of words | 588 |
| Number of sources | 0 |
| Spacing | Double |
| PowerPoint slides | 0 |
Question
A precis is an analysis or descriptive paper of a secondary source, in this case, a book. Everyone has to choose from amongst the three monographs (single-author books) we are reading this semester: Maribel Fierro’s Abd al-Rahman III, William Maltby’s Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire, and Paul Preston’s Spanish Civil War.
The papers will be graded on the understanding of the book shown, quality of writing, and fulfillment of the assignment. All bibliographic information must be in proper Chicago-style format. Check out the Chicago Style quick guide here.
A précis should contain:
Full bibliographical information. (What you would list on a bibliography/work cited)
Brief author biography. (roughly two sentences)
Body:
Thesis of the work.
Analysis of argument/support
Sources used.
Approach/method.
All this information must be included in the body, but they may be in any order.
Reception:
The book analysis must be two pages maximum, normal font (10 or 12 points), and margins (1-inch). Single-spaced with extra space between sections is OK. You could double-space if you wish, but keep it to two pages, please.
Attached below is a sample book analysis/precis.
**Further assistance**
For the bibliographic citation, make sure it is in Chicago style:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
For the book review, search the book title on JSTOR, a database of scholarly journals which you have access to through our library. You can filter for book reviews and should be able to find one for most books from which you can pull an excerpt. Be sure and cite which book review your excerpt comes from. If the link above doesn’t work, just go to the library website, and search for JSTOR. It is easy to find.
Additional resources for assignment
Image preview for “list the review’s bibliographic information”
