Critical Book Analysis


Critical Book Analysis Presentation
In the first week of class, I will invite you to select one full-length theory text from our list, through which and against which you will read the rest of our course. Choose pragmatically, but choose according to your interests. Each of these books re/writes composition's history through a particular theoretical lens, so I'll ask you to submit a first and second choice so that I can ensure that every book on the list gets assigned. The point of this project is for you to be able to test some of our assumptions on a longer, sustained argument. No one else will tell you whether those assumptions are right or wrong; however, we will rely on you to teach us your text throughout the semester—informally, as you invoke the book during our class discussions; and formally, in a critical book analysis at mid-semester. 

In Week 8, you will give a brief presentation (~20 minutes, with handouts, visuals, and/or take-away discussion tools) in which you educate us on how your reading of the book—so far (at least the first two-thirds)—builds on or away from what you are learning in the course. This should include a synopsis of the book’s exigence and aim, its overarching argument, and the organization that supports it. However, unlike a book report, this project asks you to critically analyze how the book takes up, disregards, disrupts, or invents certain ideas of composition or certain truisms about composition theory. In fact, anything you provide in terms of a summary or synopsis should be in the service of your analysis, not the other way around. We will not have read the book you are presenting, so consider providing us with a critical gloss of main concepts.

 Update on September 1:
Good Folks, I was able to award most of you your first choices. Overall, I'm pleased by your range of selections. For the good of the order, here is the presentation list:
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