Book Review 1

I'm working on a anthropology writing question and need a sample draft to help me learn.

Using the ethnographic text Wrigley Regulars: Finding Community in the Bleachers (Swyers 2010), you will develop an argument, which you will expand in this critique paper.

Formatting should include:

• 3-4 pages
• double-spaced
• 1 inch margins
• 12 point font
• page numbers

It should include the following components:

1. Compare, critique, and analyze the ethnographic book as it relates to the study of identity, culture, community, or qualitative research methods like ethnography (participant-observation or interviewing).
2. Identify the community or communities examined.
3. Describe the ethnographic context or range of settings explored.
4. Discuss the strengths and limitations of the ethnographer’s approach.

Below is a suggested format – writing style and organization of paper is flexible:

1) Title: One or more words that describes the critique theme

2) Introduction: Thematizing (1 paragraph)

• Here you set the stage for your critique.
• Present the question(s) that this ethnographic study was designed to investigate.
• State the general argument or thesis that you will be presenting in this paper about this study and how it was presented in book form.

3) Literature Review: Relating your critique to what others have done (1-2 paragraphs)

• In this section, state what previous critics, scholars, or audiences have had to say about the book, community, or social context examined.
• Highlight works or arguments of other social commentary that have contributed to your thinking about the book.
• Compare how your critique is similar to or different from the ways other people have looked at the ethnographic study.
• Please cite these outside sources using parenthetical citations like the example here.

4) Text Summary: What is the ethnographic context? What communities are documented? Who is documenting? How is the ethnographic research carried out and how it is presented? (½-1 page)

Discuss briefly how the ethnographer carried out their fieldwork:

• Where they did conduct their observations, interviews, or archival work and for how long?
• What was the social setting and their role in the research cultural environment?
• Identify any focal research participants whom they worked with more closely.

5) Discussion: Findings and analysis (1-2 pages)

• This section should be structured in a way that showcases your analysis in a clear and compelling way.
• You can separate your major critique into a few subsections and organize each subsection with several main ideas (such as several excerpt-commentary units, that explain and illustrate examples from each book).

6) Conclusion: What can audiences take away from these ethnographies? (1-2 paragraphs)

In this final section:

• Summarize your paper's key points.
• Relate these back to your original critique or argument regarding the book.
• Discuss the overall implications of the research findings of the book.
• Acknowledge the limitations of this study.
• Suggest what further research needs to be carried out to develop a better understanding of the specific ethnographic context, social behavior, or communities represented.
• Connections to your own everyday lives is encouraged.