SOSC1510 Future of Work

Your review should be between 700 and 1000 words, or 3 pages to 4 pages in length. It will be worth 10%, and should be submitted to Turnitin and hard copy in class on October 23rd if you are in Section A, or October 25th if you are in Section B. Late submissions will be docked ½ percentage grade per day. In order to expand your knowledge and develop your critical reading and writing skills, you are asked to review one of the books from the following list. You can select another book that deals explicitly with work and working conditions if you have it / them approved by your TA. Please identify what you are reviewing by providing full bibliographic information at the TOP of your review -- eg. author, title, place of publication, publisher, and date. At the end of the review you may need to provide a bibliography listing any other sources that you used – eg. reviews by other authors. Your review should focus on what the book tell us about the future of work. What did you learn that you found to be relevant to this course? Does it merely describe a problem, or does it point towards solutions? Be explicit. Your review you should not only describe or summarize the contents of the book, it should offer explicit insights about the future of work. And finally, evaluate the quality of the work. A review is written for a specific audience – someone who has not read the book or seen the films but is interested in the subject matter – in this case, your TA. Here are some tips or guidelines: 1. Don’t try to cover everything in the book. 2. After a brief summary of the contents, focus on what is relevant to this course. What lessons does it offer about the future of work? Organize the review around these lessons or insights about work, rather than follow the table of contents or repeat the storyline. 3. Illustrate your review with short paraphrased passages (phrased in your own words) or brief quotations from the work. 4. Discuss the chief strengths or weaknesses of the book. Maintain a critical balance (be fair-minded). Also see York Library’s Academic Writing Guide - which includes a section on Reviews & Critiquesthat includes the author / director, title, place of publication, publisher, year, # of pages. A brief description of the content; A brief description of reason for selection; A brief description of the author's qualification. 25% ? LESSONS ABOUT WORK Number of important points made that were relevant to this course? Quality of those points – do they merely describe a problem, or point towards solutions? Gives examples to illustrate key points 45% ANALYTICAL / CRITICAL EVALUATION Is there a thoughtful evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the book? Does it point to other evidence or questions that seem to support or weaken the argument? 10% STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION Is the review well organized? Is it well written? (grammar, spelling, coherent) Is it formatted well? Uses proper citations for references? Good use of quotations? 20% Book: McKibbon, Bill. Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist, 2013. Bestselling author and environmental activist Bill McKibben recounts the personal and global story of the fight to build and preserve a sustainable planet Rubin, Jeff. The Carbon Bubble: What Happens to Us When It Bursts. Bestselling author and economist Jeff Rubin addresses Canada's national economic future--and the financial security of all Canadians. Since 2006 and the election of the 1st Harper government, the vision of Canada's future as an energy superpower has driven the political agenda, as well as the fast-paced development of Alberta's oil sands and the push for more pipelines across the country to bring that bitumen to market. Anyone who objects is labeled a dreamer, or worse--an environmentalist: someone who puts the health of the planet ahead of the economic survival of their neighbours. * try to engage critically — if you can apply it to real-life then that’s great; don’t take everything you read at face value; try and stretch out the concepts and see if they can apply to reality * try to avoid being overly emotional because it’s not like a poetry assignment; try to avoid rhetoric, try and simply don’t write over your head; you can use I, rather than I feel you should use I think * for the book review assignment, of the three main citation styles, remember page number in citation; if you can bring in course readings (in fact we should make reference to things we’ve gone over in class) — look at what other book reviews are like; don’t rely on quotes so much that the TA can just read the book (if making a reference, only use it to further your point); working quotes into sentences is a key skill for you to develop (take bits from the sentence and work it into your own) Top - full citation of the book you are reviewing - author,title,place of publication,publisher, date Use “http://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html. “ for citation End - bibliography, normal reference list ADD page nums as well