Book reviews will be approximately 1,000 words in length (excluding references). They will likely include:
- A short summary of the book’s purpose and its main argument or ideas;
- Evaluation of the main argument or ideas;
- Evaluation of the evidence used;
- Discussion of the book’s relationship to the wider scholarship of its subject area (where it agrees or disagrees with other works, for example);
- An exploration of how the book relates to the practice or theory of Learning Development.
It will likely not include:
- Excessive quotations from the book itself;
- A critique based on how the reviewer would have written the book;
- A full description of the book’s ideas (more focus on evaluation, rather than description).
A review of an edited book will likely include:
- An overview of the book, its purpose and the connecting themes;
- An evaluation of how successfully the edited book works as a connected whole (for example, is it too broad or too narrow? Are there any glaring gaps?);
- An evaluation of some of the outstanding or particularly important chapters (with an explanation of why these were chosen).
A book review should have a title that captures the essence of the reviewer’s assessment, followed by a full citation for the reviewed book.