4th Paper Assignment

Book Review Essay on O’Connor’s The Hidden Manna

Please write a 5-page book review essay on O’Connor’s The Hidden Manna. Your essay
will break down roughly into two parts: a summary of the contents of the book, and an
evaluation. Make sure that your summary takes an aerial view and be sure not to take on the
voice of the author in your summary (i.e., don’t make it an abridgement). You will not be able to
report everything with the same level of detail, and so will want to choose themes that are
representative.

The evaluation should analyze and judge the argument of the book, comment on any
problems or deficiencies, and explain the value (or lack thereof) of the book.

You may find it helpful to consult other book reviews (of O’Connor’s book but of other
books too). Of course, if you borrow a judgment, cite accordingly. It would be a good idea to
read book reviews of other books before you write yours and even before you begin reading The
Hidden Manna—you might simply read the book review section of several volumes of a journal
(Journal of Early Christian Studies, Theological Studies, Journal of Theological Studies,
Communio, Nova et Vetera, Modern Theology, etc. [all available online through the library]—but
please do not consult reviews of The Hidden Manna, until after you formulate your own thoughts
and judgments. Otherwise you would rob yourself of this opportunity to learn and sharpen your
own mind.

If you cite O’Connor in your review, simply put the page numbers in parentheses at the
end of the citation, before the final punctuation mark. Other citations should be according to the
Chicago Manual of Style.

Additional requirements:

1. Title page
2. Double-spacing
3. 1” margins, all around
4. page numbers
5. 12 point font
6. Use footnotes rather than endnotes.
7. Citations according to the “Notes and Bibliography” format (rather than the “Author-Date”
format) of the Chicago Manual of Style (summed up, e.g., in Turabian). See the “Citation
Quick Guide” here:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html

8. Please save your file in PDF format before uploading.

 Guide to the Grading of the Book Review

The “A” paper will have:

• A clear and lucid summary that takes an “aerial view” (that discloses the structure of the
whole book--its division and progress), with major themes and illuminating details
• A insightful evaluation that is well reasoned and beyond a mere opinion
• An eloquent style, free of major mistakes such as sentence fragments, comma splices, and
dangling participles
• Compliance with all directions for margins, spacing, length, font, page numbers, and
method of citation; and no typographical errors.

Other letter grades will be assigned, depending how far the paper is from this ideal.

Commonly used abbreviations

awk.=awkward
caps=capitalize
col.=colloquial1
com. sp.=comma splice2
dang. part.=dangling participle3
dict.=poor diction
gram.=poor grammar
l.c.=lower case
obs.=obscure
paral.=lack of parallelism4
sent. frag.=sentence fragment
sp.=spelling
trans.=poor transition

1
E.g., the use of words like “cool” or “dude”; or the use of contractions, “I ain’t,” “He didn’t.”
2
Two sentences connected by a comma, e.g., “We study theology, they study Latin.”
3
A participle that modifies no noun, e.g., “Setting aside the thorny question of whether the moon
is made of cheese, much progress has been made in our knowledge of space.”
4
The most common example of this mistake: “One loves God when their life is righteous.”