Book reviews are always a very popular feature of the newsletter. Book review guidelines are below. To request or suggest a book for review and for details, including submission deadlines, please contact Zhenjie Weng.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

HEIS News welcomes reviews of scholarly books and textbooks dealing with English teaching, applied linguistics, second language acquisition, language assessment, or other disciplines as they relate to ESL or TESL instruction in higher education settings. Anyone interested in writing a review for HEIS News may choose a recent book in the field and contact the editor for approval. Reviews will be considered for publication based on the quality of the reviewer’s evaluation and description of the book, and the book’s relevance and importance to the field.

Reviews should

• be 600–900 words in length;
• include a 50-word (500 character or fewer) abstract;
• include a 75- to 100-word bio of the reviewer;
• follow the style guidelines in the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition (APA Manual);
• be in MS Word (.doc or .docx) or rich-text (.rtf) format; and
• include a reviewer headshot.
• Book reviews should be commentary/critical, not merely summary, and must include elements such as assessment of the writing, the content, the research/evidence provided, the book’s usefulness, etc. The summary portion should make up less than half of the text. Following is a basic academic book review outline from the UNC Writing Center:
• First, a review gives the reader a concise summary of the content. This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose.
• Second, and more importantly, a review offers a critical assessment of the content. This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand.
• Finally, in addition to analyzing the work, a review often suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it.

Additional information about academic book reviews from the USC article, "Writing Academic Book Reviews."