Real Estate: Urban Planning

 

 

The book to read is The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch. In general, this book review should be more than a summary of what the author has said in the book. This should be a critical examination of the thoughts that the author has tried to communicate. Remember each that the book on the list is a classic text in the urban planning area. The author has taken a very strong position in their book. Identify those strong positions, analyze them, compare them to your personal knowledge and experiences and take a position yourself on the author’s positions.

Start your review with an introductory paragraph to identify the book, the author, the publisher and the copyright date. This introductory paragraph should then set out the main themes of the book. The reader of your report should know after reading this first paragraph just what book this is and generally what the book is about.

The next paragraph should discuss the author’s methodology and structure throughout the book. Often this structure is best reflected in chapter divisions of the book. This paragraph should be a preview for the reader on what the reader can expect from your review.

In the body of the review, analyze in detail each of the main points discussed in the book and provide your perspective on the conclusions of the author for each point. You may choose to do this using key issues as the organizing structure, or you may do this using actual chapters in the book as the organizing structure.

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After presenting the various points brought out in the book, end with a conclusion section tying together all of the issues raised throughout the book. Develop your conclusions to the key points the author was trying to make, including answering such questions as how successful was the author in making his points, what areas in the book are less successful or convincing than others and what are your personal reflections on the book and its points.

Don’t forget to footnote where appropriate. If you use other reference material or texts for “point/counterpoint” discussions, make sure that you give appropriate references to those sources.