How to Write a Book Review

Author(s): L. C. Lovejoy
Source: The Accounting Review , Jan., 1956, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan., 1956), pp. 168-169
Published by: American Accounting Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/242088

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

American Accounting Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to The Accounting Review

This content downloaded from

152.57.75.121 on Sat, 06 Feb 2021 11:18:42 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 168 The Accounting Review
whet the interest of the new engineering instructor in
such items as lesson plans, lecture notes, instruction
sheets, prepared class questions, textbooks, the black-
board, charts, and demonstrations. In all probability
the instructor already has gained some knowledge of
these items from any past teaching experience or his
own course work as a student. The chapter gives more
space to the projected aids than to any other single
item.
A very pertinent statement is found in the chapter
on Conducting the Class Session: "The formal lecture
method of instruction wherein the instructor delivers
a prepared lecture and the student takes a passive part
as a silent observer or is occupied in feverish note-
taking, is usually a boresome and ineffective method of
teaching." This same chapter, however, describes only
two alternate methods to the lecture-demonstration
method: question-answer sessions and group investi-
gations or cooperative solving of class problems. Each
of these latter two techniques is described in one para-
graph.
Comments
The efforts of the American Society for Engineering
Education to produce a Manual for the instructor in
engineering are comparable to those which resulted in
the Accounting Teacher's Guide published by the Ameri-
can Accounting Association. [Editor's note: See the
AccOUNTING REVIEW, October, 1954, page 713.] Both
the Manual and the Guide will be most useful to the
newly appointed, inexperienced instructor on the col-
lege level.
Both of these publications are similar to the extent
that they hit only the high spots of the pedagogical
materials they cover, both put considerable emphasis on
the lecture method of teaching (although the Mklanual
has an excellent section on student activities), and both
are the efforts of a professional group to provide its
members with aid and stimulation in teaching.
The Manual is more readable, and there is less dupli-
cation of topics in various chapters. The Manual may
hold the interest of the reader more easily because of
the use of cartoons to high-light important points.
Whether the personnel for whom this Manual is in-
tended need this type of motivation is a matter of dis-
cussion.
In an effort to produce a relatively short treatment of
teaching in the respective areas, both the Manual and
the Guide have left much unsaid. For instance, what
could be written about how to do what both books have
said should be done in testing students would constitute
How to Write a Book Review
While many enjoy reading the comments of another
about a book, few realize the work that goes into the
preparation of a good review.
Before he starts, the reviewer needs answers to a few
questions. These answers he may have to determine for
himself or have answered by the one who makes the
request of him! (1) What should be the content of the
This content downloaded from
152.57.75.121 on Sat, 06 Feb 2021 11:18:42 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Chapter five, devoted to Student Learning Activi-
ties, contains a wealth of information on planning labo-
ratory experiences. Although the contents of this chap-
ter (laboratory work, field or inspection trips, and
homework assignments) are not entirely new to the in-
structor, the Manual does move the inexperienced
teacher to the instructor's side of the desk and give
some "rhyme and reason" to all these activities.
The chapter on testing contains a variety of infor-
mation about such things as the different kinds of test
questions that can be used, when to test, how long a
test should be, and the need for prompt grading of
tests. Omitted from this chapter is the biggest problem
of all, however: How to determine specifically what to
include on a test and how to decide the type of question
or test problem that is best for each particular item.
The chapter on Administration of Instruction seems
to be a bit of sermonizing to administrators. A cartoon
in the last chapter has a caption: "Time for Reflection
... Take a Look at Yourself." This, in a nutshell, is
the message in this chapter.
a text in itself. Accounting and engineering instructors
will probably develop teaching abilities the same way
most of their predecessors have-by doing it on-the-
job over a period of years.
Both the Manual and the Guide will not become
worn or threadbare from use. These publications are
the kind that will be read but once by most individuals.
Neither book can be viewed as a reference book con-
taining specific ideas applicable to particular daily or
weekly class sessions. Both the Manual and the Guide
should be a part of a departmental or collegiate profes-
sional library rather than a part of an individual's per-
sonal library.
These publications will serve a valuable function in
orientation of new and/or inexperienced faculty mem-
bers. Older and more experienced teachers may also
want to read this material to gain a new perspective of
their own teaching. A necessary supplement to both of
these books must be the advice, guidance, and exchange
of ideas which can come only on a personal, face-to-
face basis between the inexperienced and experienced
colleagues working together in the accounting or en-
qineering teaching professions.
ROBERT M. SWANSON
Assistant Professor of Business Education
Ball State Teachers College
Muncie, Indiana
review? (2) Should it be written according to some pre-
scribed format? (3) What purpose is the review ex-
pected to serve? (4) When is the due date? (5) How long
should it be?
When the reviewer is satisfied that he knows what is
wanted from him, the following check-list may help
him:
 Book
1. What does the book purport to be about?
How extensively does it claim to treat the subject?
Manner of the treatment-
Primarily statistical or in other ways factual? His-
torical? Speculative?
Illustrate by types of evidence used by the author,
or logic used, or both.
Is the book intended to be a new contribution on the
subject in-
Facts, events, and theories?
Relationships and connections among already-
known? events and theories?
Better presentation or presentation for special ap-
plication?
2. Does the book accomplish what it says it is intended to
do?
As well as intended?
Better than the author says it will (was he too
modest)?
Does it accomplish something else in addition to
what was intended?
3. How well does it accomplish the objectives intended?
Was there a good reason for printing the book?
How does it compare with other texts on the same
subject, if any?
4. How objective is it?
Does it present one point of view, more than one, or
all?
Is the point of view clearly expressed or easily identi-
fied?
Is the point of view buried? Must it be "dug out" by
the reader?
5. How well is it documented?
This content downloaded from
152.57.75.121 on Sat, 06 Feb 2021 11:18:42 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Reviews 169
Footnotes showing sources of data or the points of
view of others?
What is the caliber of the source material?
Primary or secondary?
Up-to-date?
Do the sources have good reputation?
Do the sources have a biased point of view?
Evaluation of a cross-section of the source ma-
terial?
6. For what type of audience is the book intended?
Is the style suitable for the audience intended?
Is the style "academic?"
Is it for the "expert?"
Is it a popular treatment of a scientific subject for
the general public?
7. Over-all evaluation and recommendations of the re-
viewer.
Your critical appraisal showing your reasons or cri-
teria.
8. Digest of Subject Matter.
If your comments are intended to give the reader a
brief review of the subject matter of the text (as is
often the case), quoted passages should be identi-
fied by page numbers and enclosed in quotation
marks.
9. Identity of Text.
The identity should include the following as they
appear on the title page of the text: AunIOR'S
NAME, Title (underlined) (City of publication:
Publisher's name, Year of publication, Number of
Pages, Price).
L. C. LovEjoy
Professor of Management
New York University