How to Craft Professional Book Reviews under Time Pressure

How to Craft Professional Book Reviews under Time Pressure How to Craft Professional Book Reviews under Time Pressure Different readers will always be keen on your thoughts about the books youve read if you follow the following advice in this article. When writing professional book reviews, you ought to have two objectives. First, to educate the reader about the content of the book, second, to present an assessment concerning the book’s quality. Before You Begin Writing Start reading the book, from the title, considering the relevant information that can be revealed from the title, preface, and table of contents. As you read the whole book, make notes from the passages to cite in your review, as well as to clarify the following information: What is the book about? Does it fit its genre? What is the writer’s perspective? Do you agree with it? Who is your favorite character, and why? Did the story keep you guessing? What is your favorite part of the book, and why? Is there any part of the book you truly dislike? Which and why? As an audience, can you flow with the authors style, whether formal or informal? Does the author’s conclusion convince you? What did the book achieve? Is more work required? Compare the book with others written by this author, or books in this genre by other writers Your opinion? If you could change something, what might it be? (If you wish you could change the ending, dont reveal it!) Writing Your Review Set the tone of the review. Hook the reader with your opening sentence, so they are keen on reading the rest of the review. Begin with a few sentences describing what the book is really about. Ensure your opening statements directly relate to your critical response to the book and keep them concise. Relevant information about the author including reputation, qualifications, and their previous work should be included in the introduction. The fundamental themes you want to discuss may also be mentioned, as this gives the readers an idea of the context of book analysis. Write a summary of the book. You can begin the overview of the themes and main points in the book after setting up your introduction. The summary needs to be kept short, to the point, and informative. Make use of quotes or paraphrases from the book to back up your summary without uncovering plot twists or giving any spoilers. The crux of the book is the critical analysis, and this is usually done after your summary of the book’s themes end. You have to be clear and direct when writing this. Talk about what you specifically liked about the book, and point out anything you disliked about it. Try not to spend more than one-third of the paper summarizing the book. Avoid plagiarism and ensure your essay is based primarily on evidence drawn from a careful reading of the book. The objective is to give a coherent piece with a reasonable argument. Thus, review the book you read, not the book you wish the author wrote. Wrap up the review. Â  After you have argued your position on the book clearly, sum up your analysis of in few sentences, and this should naturally flow into your conclusion. Talk about questions, which were not covered, pay attention to unsettled points concerning the topic of the analyzed book, and problems that still need to be solved or require deeper analysis. Do not introduce new material at this point. You could suggest the kind of reader youd recommend the book to. For instance, youths, older people, fans of relationship drama/comedy/ mystery stories. Then give the readers your farewell statement, something to think about! Sometimes the best closing is a dilemma that will stick in readers minds. A starred or numerical rating is not a bad idea too. Consider these tips when writing your original book review and enjoy the result.

Definition and Examples of Sememes in English

Definition and Examples of Sememes in English Definition In English grammar, morphology,  and semiotics, a sememe is a unit of meaning conveyed by a morpheme (i.e., a word or word element). As shown below, not all linguists interpret the concept of sememe in just the same way. The term sememe was coined by Swedish linguist Adolf Noreen in Và ¥rt Sprà ¥k (Our Language), his unfinished grammar of the Swedish language (1904-1924). John McKay notes that Noreen described a sememe as a definite idea-content expressed in some linguistic form, e.g., triangle and three-sided straight-lined figure are the same sememe (Guide to Germanic Reference Grammars, 1984). The term was introduced into American linguistics in 1926 by Leonard Bloomfield. See Examples and Observations below. Also see: Grammatical CategoryHomonymyLexemeLexicalizationLexical Set Lexicology, Semantics, and Semiotics Polysemy Semantic Field and Semantic Field Analysis Examples and Observations: As a rough approximation, one may think of a sememe as an element of meaning.[W]e can say that a lexeme may be connected to more than one sememe; the lexeme table is an example. This relationship is often referred to by the term polysemy, which means multiple meaning.(Sydney Lamb, Lexicology and Semantics. Language and Reality: Selected Writings of Sydney Lamb, ed. by Jonathan J. Webster. Continuum, 2004) Semes and Sememes- [T]he basic or minimal unit of meaning, not further subdividable, is the seme, and . . . two or more semes existing together in a more complex unit of meaning comprise a sememe.(Louise Schleiner, Cultural Semiotics, Spenser, and the Captive Woman. Associated University Presses, 1995)- A sememe is the totality of semes that are actualized by a term within a given context. In [William] Blakes poetry the following sememe could be attached to the term city: industrial, black, crowded, poverty, pain, evil, filth, noise.(Bronwen Martin and Felizitas Ringham, Key Terms i n Semiotics. Continuum, 2006) Bloomfield on Sememes- According to [Leonard] Bloomfield (1933: 161 f.), a morpheme was composed of phonemes and had a meaning, the sememe. The sememe was a constant and definite unit of meaning which differed from all other meanings, including all other sememes. Thus, in Bloomfields view, the identification of a morpheme was based on the identification of a sequence of phonemes which could be assigned a meaning that was constant and different from all other meanings.(Gisa Rauh, Syntactic Categories: Their Identification and Description in Linguistic Theories. Oxford University Press, 2010)- In customary stratificationalist parlance . . ., one refers to the sememe as the realizate of a lexeme, or that piece of fragment of a network of mans cognitive knowledge that the given lexeme happens to realize. For technical and working purposes such a definition of the sememe is quite satisfactory and one need take no further issue with it. The evolution of the concept is fairly straight as w ell: in [Leonard] Bloomfields Language (1933) the term sememe refers to the meaning of a morpheme. Bloomfield offered no clear distinction between morpheme and lexeme, however, and this lack of clarification . . . meant foregoing the benefit of a powerful generalization. . . .The reason for this neglect of a most useful principle in linguistics arises from the fact that it is difficult to explain to linguists of other persuasions, to students, etc., just what it is that the stratificationalist means by the term sememe.(Adam Makkai, How Does a Sememe Mean? Essays in Honor of Charles F. Hockett, ed. by Frederick Browning Agard. Brill, 1983) The Meaning of a Simple WordWhat laity calls a simple word is probably a monomorphemic lexeme identifiable rather obviously with a major part of speech, as one is taught in traditional pedagogic grammars. What laity calls the meaning of a simple word is the semantically always-complex sememe that stands behind or sponsors a given lexeme. If such a lexeme is a common one- e.g., the meaning of father, mother, milk or sun, native speakers are not consciously aware of the definitional meaning of such a form, but they can, nevertheless, immediately translate such a form into another language they know, say German, and come up with Vater, Mutter, Milch or Sonne. If the word needed to express a fairly clear notion does not come to mind or is actually unknown, laity says, how shall I put it (the person has the notion but cannot find the word for it).(Adam Makkai, Luminous Loci in Lex-Eco-Memory: Toward a Pragmo-Ecological Resolution of the Metaphysical Debate Concerning the Reality or Ficti tiousness of Words. Functional Approaches to Language, Culture and Cognition, ed. by David G. Lockwood. John Benjamins, 2000) Sememes and Lexical Units[T]he introduction of the concept lexical unit (although within the restricted technical language of linguistics) is itself an illustration of the concept-forming power of the word. Many linguists . . . make a clear distinction between the seme (or semantic feature) and the sememe, defined as a complex or configuration of semes, which corresponds to a single sense of a lexeme. Sometimes the complete meaning of a lexeme is called a semanteme. However, up to [D. Alan] Cruse (1986) a precise term was missing in lexicology and lexical semantics for the combination of a specific form with a single sense, i.e. a full linguistic sign in Saussures sense. . . . Obviously, the introduction of the notion lexical unit has serious consequences for the distinction between homonymy and polysemy. It must be recognized, however, that paradigmatic as well as syntagmatic relations between words are a matter of lexical units, not lexemes.(Leonhard Lipka, English Lexicology: Lex ical Structure, Word Semantics and Word-Formation. Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002)