Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble
This assignment is a book review. It is a paper that critically evaluates the book Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble; and, tells the reader what the point it is trying to make and how convincingly it makes this point. Writing a critique achieves three purposes. First, it provides you with an understanding of the information contained in a book and a familiarity with other information written on the same topic. Second, it provides an opportunity to apply and develop your critical thinking skills as you attempt to evaluate critically a political scientist’s (or other thinker’s) work. Third, it helps you to improve your own writing skills as you attempt to describe the book’s strengths and weaknesses within a specific page length so that your reader can clearly understand them.
Generally, a written critique covers five areas: thesis; methods; evidence of thesis support; contribution to the literature; and, recommendation. Because for many of you this will be your first introduction to the topic and may not know the literature, it is neither anticipated nor expected that you will critique the book’s contribution to the literature. Before you start your critical review you should provide the reader with a short summary of what the book is about. Next you should turn your attention to the critical review.
The following are guides to help you write your paper.
Thesis: Your first task is to find and clearly state the thesis of the book. Tell me the page you believe you found it on and actually quote it in your review. The thesis is the main point the book is trying to make. Many authors, however, do not present their thesis clearly. Do you have to hunt for the thesis of the book? Comment about the clarity of the author’s thesis presentation, and state the author’s thesis in your paper.
Methods: What methods did the authors use to investigate their topic? In other words, how did the authors go about supporting their thesis? In your critique, carefully answer the following two questions. First, were appropriate methods used? In other words, did the author’s approach to supporting the thesis make sense? Second, did the authors employ the selected methods correctly? Did you discover any errors in the way the authors conducted their research?
Evidence to thesis support: In your critique, answer the following questions: What evidence do the authors present in support of their thesis? What are the strengths of the evidence presented by the authors? What are the weaknesses of the evidence presented? On balance, how well did the authors support their thesis?
Recommendation: In this section, summarize your evaluation of the book. Tell the readers several things. Who will benefit from reading it? What will the benefit be? How important and extensive is that benefit? Clearly state your evaluation of the book.
Think of your paper as a construction requiring planning (an outline) and careful thinking of concepts, issues, problems etc. It is helpful to state the objectives and the plan for the paper in the opening paragraph (introduction). Despite having major components in the paper, you do not need subheadings. Instead, you should use paragraphs as building blocks. Do not use too many long, direct quotations. You can summarize the argument(s) in your own words, but make sure to cite the source of the information. Because you are not using outside sources, it will suffice that you simply cite page numbers from the book for either direct quotation or summarization in your own words.
Do not want any review which is simply a chapter by
chapter summary will automatically receive, at best,
a grade of 50%.
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