4-MAT Book Review Assignment Instructions
Overview
Typically a book review serves the purpose of helping others to decide if they should or want to read a particular book or not. This is done by reading and evaluating a given book, and summing it up in terms of how well it has been written and/or how well the author has handled the subject matter. The 4-MAT REVIEW book review system is a way of responding to readings, lectures, and life experiences that requires the learner to interact with new ideas on 4 specific levels.
Instructions
Abstract. Summarize what you have read, boiling the book down into 400 600 words (no more than 2 pages). Prove you comprehend the readings by writing a no-nonsense summary. The abstract is not a commentary or listing of topics but rather an objective summary from the reader’s viewpoint. Abstract equals “boiled down.” This section should include a minimum of 2 footnotes* to the text being reviewed. (*in text citations if you are using APA style).
Concrete Response. Get vulnerable! In no less than 250 words and no more than 1 page, relate a personal life experience that this book triggered in your memory. Relate your story in first person, describing action, and quoting exact words you remember hearing or saying. In the teaching style of Jesus, this is a do-it-yourself parable, case study, confession. You will remember almost nothing you have read unless you make this critical, personal connection. What video memory began to roll? This is your chance to tell your story and make new ideas your own.
Reflection. This is the critical thinking part of the review (not critical in the sense of negative, but in the sense of questioning). In no less than 250 words and no more than 1 page, describe what questions pop up for you in response to what you have read. Keep a rough-note sheet at hand as you read. Outsmart the author by asking better questions than he/she raised in the book. Tell how the author could have made the book better or more appealing to those in your field of service. One way to begin this section is by stating what bothered you most about the book. This is not a place to provide an endorsement or affirmation of the book.
Action. So what are you going to do about it? In 400 – 600 words (no less than 1 page and no more than 2 pages) provide 2 actions that describe what changes you are going to make in your life, ministry, and/or work as a result of your reading. Actions should be measurable and reveal a commitment to specific time, specific people, and identified steps. Make sure the actions are implemented between the time the review is submitted and Week 8. The Week 8 Discussion activity asks for you to reveal the results of one of your actions.
Please provide a Turabian style title page, pagination, footnotes & Bibliography. Non-SOD students, please format using APA/AMA style which includes title page, pagination, citations/endnotes and reference page.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
