The Lyon book is the only source to use for this assignment. Grades will be deducted if any other sources are employed in your review.

The Lyon book is the only source to use for this assignment. Grades will be deducted if any other sources are employed in your review.

6 Pages double spaced 14 Font [You do not need a title/cover page] I will provide details on how to reference the book review in Class 6, Book Review Session.

This assignment is a book review. It is an assignment that asks you to critically David Lyon
Pandemic Surveillance 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 scientists (or other
thinkers) work. Third, it helps you to improve your own writing skills as you attempt to describe
the books strengths and weaknesses within a specific page length so that your reader can clearly
understand them.
This book review assignment has four areas: Thesis Statement; Methods; Evidence; and,
Recommendations. Before you start your critical review, you should provide the reader with a
short summary of what the book is about. This should be no longer than page. Consider this as
your introduction to the review. Next, you should turn your attention to the four requirements of
the critical review. The following are guides to help you write your paper.
Thesis Statement: Your first task is to find and clearly state the thesis in the book. The thesis is
the main point the book is trying to make. Quote Lyons Thesis Statement in the body of your
review and tell me which page or pages you believe it is found on. Many authors, however, do not
present their thesis clearly. Do you have to hunt for the thesis of the book? If you believe you
found it, quote it in our review; and, tell me which page(s) you believe you found it on.
Comment about the clarity of the authors thesis presentation. If you do not believe Lyon has a
thesis statement than indicate this in your answer to this section of the book review.
Methods: What methods did the author use to investigate her topic? In other words, how did the
author go about supporting their thesis? In your critique, carefully answer the following two
questions. First, were appropriate methods used? In other words, did the authors 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 for thesis support: In your critique, answer the following questions: What evidence
did the author present in support of their thesis? What are the strengths of the evidence presented
by the author? What are the weaknesses of the evidence presented? On balance, how well did the
author support their thesis?
Recommendation: In this section, summarize your evaluation of the book. Tell the readers
several things. Who would benefit from reading it? What will the benefit be? Be specific. Dont
for example say something generic like everybody should read this book or students taking
political science courses should read it. How important and extensive is that benefit? Finally,
clearly state your evaluation of the book whether you liked or disliked it and why?
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). The introduction should conclude with a concise, coherent
summary of the argument to be developed. Despite having major components in the paper, you do
not need subheadings as they tend simply to be space filler and I will call you out on it and
deduct marks. Instead, you should use paragraphs as building blocks. To effectively use the book
in your paper, try to identify the main argument(s) of the author and select examples carefully to
bolster your argument. 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 as an indirect
quote.
Your paper will be evaluated on the following criteria:
A clear, coherent and systematic presentation;
Correct spelling and a competent writing style which allows you to express your views and
ideas clearly;
Proper citation [refer to the documentation posted to D2L on how to reference this
assignment.]
Adequately and fully addressing all aspects of the assignment
Any review, which is simply a chapter-by-chapter summary, will automatically
receive at best a grade of 50%; and, the grade may be lowered based upon the other
grading criteria.
Do not use any other sources other than the book under review. If outside sources are
used I will deduct a substantial grade.

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