Spanish history research paper

Book Analysis/Précis Assignment

A precis is an analysis or descriptive paper of a secondary source, in this case a book. Everyone has to choose their own book, a scholarly/academic work relating to some topic in Spanish history.  For those of you doing the research paper, this book should be one of your sources for the final paper.  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:

Excerpt from a published book review. List the review's bibliographic information (also in Chicago-style).

 

The book analysis must be two pages maximum, normal font (10 or 12 point) and margins (i-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.