How to Write a Book Review for a Specific Journal

Book reviews are important for their academic communities and a great publishing opportunity for early career researchers. Some journals accept unsolicited reviews and others do not. Some journals have submission guidelines for book reviews and others do not. For more about this process, I recommend reading this “Essay on writing academic books reviews” from Inside Higher Ed.

What I want to do in this ipblog post is take a more in depth look at how to write a book review for a specific journal. Besides consulting the requirements the journal may have available, there are many further steps authors can take. 

In order to show how the process works, I’ll take you through the steps I am doing now to get a book review published in a journal I want to get published in. I am an EFL instructor who focuses in EdTech, so I would like to publish in the journal Language Teaching & Technology. It’s a great journal and a valuable resource for anyone working in the field. It does not accept unsolicited reviews, and does not list guidelines for book review submissions on it’s website. Instead, one is instructed to contact the author about writing book reviews.

But before doing that, I want to understand the writing conventions the journal uses for book reviews, and practice by doing a review of one of my favorite language teaching books, Scott Thornburry’s “30 Language Teaching Methods.” Now, this is a very famous book, written in 2017, by a very famous author, so many reviews have already been published of it, and a journal wouldn’t be interested in my review at this point. But, I learned a lot from this book, and I think readers of the ipblog will find this book incredibly helpful (if they haven’t read it already).

Many book reviews on the ipblog will follow the conventions used by Language Teaching & Technology. I would like to get good at writing reviews in this style, as it’s important to use the academic writing conventions in one’s field.  Also, when I email the editor to offer my services as a reviewer, I would like it to read something like, “I am interested in reviewing book X. You can see my review work here (link to a review on the ipblog).” I’d like the editor to think something like, “This sort or review is exactly the kind of review that we usually publish. I should use this person as a reviewer.” With that being said, let’s look into the steps it takes to write a review for a specific journal. 

I read and analyzed the following five review articles from Language Teaching & Technology for (1) wordcount and (2) overall structure. You can click on the article title to view the article. Here’s what I found:

Review 1

Wolfe, A. (2021). Review of Technology and the psychology of second language learners and users. Language Learning & Technology, 25(1), 36-39. doi:10125/73421

Wordcount: 2,206

1. Introduction:
   1. Opens with succinct summary
   2. Establishes relevance
   3. Describes content
   4. Target audience
2. Outline
3. Summary of sections (Each section begins with a one sentence summary and is followed by content of chapter):
   1. Summary of part 1
   2. Summary of part 2
   3. Summary of part 3
   4. Summary of part 4
   5. Summary of part 5
   6. Summary of part 6
   7. Summary of part 7, which is the conclusion of the book.
4. Pros and Cons
5. Relevance to readers of the journal
6. Conclusion

Review 2

Quinlan, J. D. (2021). Review of Teaching language online: A guide to designing, developing, and delivering online, blended, and filled language courses. Language Learning & Technology, 25(2), 46-49. doi:10125/73431

Wordcount: 1,876

1. Introduction:
   1. Succinct summary
   2. Content and uniqueness of book
2. Outline
   1. Target audience
3. Summary and analysis of chapters (one sentence summary then details)
   1. Summary and analysis of chapter 1
   2. Summary and analysis of chapter 2
   3. Summary and analysis of chapter 3
   4. Summary and analysis of chapter 4
   5. Summary and analysis of chapter 5
   6. Summary and analysis of conclusion
      1. Intent and relevance of book
4. Recommendation

Review 3

Tuzcu, A. (2021). Review of Creating effective blended language learning courses: A research-based guide from planning to evaluation. Language Learning & Technology, 25(2), 42-45. doi:10125/73430

Wordcount: 2,320

1. Introduction
   1. Establishes relevance
   2. Succinct, one sentence summary
2. Outline
   1. Pros
3. Summaries:
   1. Part 1 summary: Chapter 1
   2. Part 2 summary
      1. Chapter 3 summary
      2. Chapter 4 summary
   3. Part 3 summary
      1. Chapter 5 summary
      2. Chapter 6 summary
      3. Chapter 7 summary
      4. Chapter 8 summary, which is the final chapter of the book
4. Recommendation

Review 4

Suga, K. (2021). Review of Language teaching with video-based technology: Creativity and CALL teacher education. Language Learning & Technology, 25(2), 50-54. doi:10125/73432

Wordcount: 2,194

1. Establishes relevance
2. Summary of book
3. Explains important concept
4. Aim of book
5. Target audience
6. Outline
7. Summary of chapters:
   1. Summary of chapter 1
   2. Summary of chapter 2
   3. Summary of chapter 3
   4. Summary of chapter 4
   5. Summary of chapter 5
   6. Summary and analysis of chapter 6, which is the final chapter of the book
8. Pros
9. Cons
10. Recommendation

Review 5

Guedez, L. A. (2021). Review of Disruptive technologies and the language classroom: A complex systems theory approach. Language Learning & Technology, 25(1), 40-43. doi:10125/73422

Wordcount: 2,044

1. Introduction and summary
   1. Establishes relevance
   2. Recommendation
2. Outline
   1. Definitions of important terms
   2. Aims of the book
3. Chapter summaries
   1. Chapter 2 summary
   2. Chapter 3 summary
   3. Chapter 4 summary
   4. Chapter 5 summary
      1. Recommendation
   5. Chapter 6 summary
   6. Chapter 7 summary
4. Analysis, target-audience, recommendation

Analysis of Reviews

One can see that they are similar, but there is room for style and difference. Now that we have a general idea of what reviews look like in Language Teaching & Technology, let’s do our outline for Scott Thornbury’s “30 Language Teaching Methods.”

Outline for Review of Thornbury’s “30 Language Teaching Methods”

Thornbury, S. (2017). Scott Thornbury’s 30 Language Teaching Methods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wordcount: (approx) 2,000

1. Introduction
   1. Establish relevance
   2. Succinct summary
   3. Explanation of Thornbury’s view on methods
   4. Target audience
2. Outline
   1. General outline
   2. Explanation of section and chapter structure
3. Summary of sections (Each section begins with a one sentence summary and is followed by content of section).
   1. Summary of part 1 – Natural methods
   2. Summary of part 2 – Linguistic methods
   3. Summary of part 3 – Communicative methods
   4. Summary of part 4 – Visionaries
   5. Summary of part 5 – Self-study methods
   6. Summary of part 6 – Beyond methods
4. Analysis and recommendation

Concluding Thoughts

As I write, the outline may change and morph to better fit the review. However, as long as I follow this general pattern of wordcount and structure, I know that the review will be within the academic writing conventions of my field.

You can read my complete review here: Book Review: “Scott Thornbury’s 30 Language Teaching Methods.”

I hope you’ve found this analysis helpful for whatever field you are working in. 

Paul T. Johnson

---

Advertisement