week 2 book critique 4-5 pages with referance

Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction)

Tue 5/19/2020 12:59 PM

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This week, you will be submitting your first book critique on Gospelize Your Youth Ministry by Greg Stier.  Please use the "Book Critique Example and Guidelines" provided in Course Content as a model (or template) for your paper. (Use the same sections.)  Your summary of the book should be about 3-4 pages long and highlight the author's main ideas.  There should be no personal commentary or evaluation in this section.  Your evaluation section needs to be about 1-1.5 pages and should demonstrate critical thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of some of the author's specific ideas.  That means you must go deeper than just telling what you like or do not like and you must support your ideas.  You also need to show the applicability of the book to youth ministry.  How would you specifically use one or two of the author's ideas in a ministry with students?  Also, read the assignment instructions and the grading rubric for this paper.  Here are some other important things to remember about academic writing (for all your papers):

· All papers (including footnotes and bibliography) are to be written in Times New Roman (12 pt) font and should have a one-inch margin on all sides.

· Book titles are always italicized and NOT in quotation marks or underlined.

· Use reference numbers and footnotes; do NOT use parenthetical references in your papers (except for Scripture).

· Quotations must be exact.  (spelling, capitalization, punctuation, emphasis, etc.)

· Spell out numbers less than three digits unless used as a statistic, age or in a quote.

· Make sure your subjects agree – do not switch from “I” to “we” (or from “ him” to “they”) in a sentence.

· Do not use contractions (i.e., can’t, wasn't, don’t) in academic writing.

· Do not use slang, colloquialisms or “church talk” in academic writing. These do not communicate clearly to all segments of your readership. Academic writing involves precision.

· Do not end a sentence with a preposition.

· Do not call the author by first name in academic writing.

· Make sure you are using the correct word. (Do not use “ there” for “their,” etc.)

· Always make sure your last name is the first part of the file name for your papers. (i.e., SirlesGospelize.docx)

· It is okay to use first person writing for all of our papers because of the nature of these assignments.  Do not refer to yourself in third person. 

· Do not use second person in academic writing.

· The School of Divinity Writing Guide provides examples and guidelines as well. (I provided a link in an earlier announcement.)

I hope these things help you write better papers.

Let me also point out another thing I am seeing in your DB posts that applies to your papers as well.  "Bible" and "Scripture" are always capitalized.  Words like biblical, scriptural, minister, youth ministry, pastor (unless part of a formal title such as "Pastor Smith"), church (unless part of a church name), gospel, godly, etc. are NOT capitalized.

Be diligent! Dr. Sirles