Policy Report: Review

The policy report you will be reading is titled “Our Common Digital Future”. You can download it here:
https://www.wbgu.de/en/publications/publication/towards-our-common-digital-future (Links to an external site.)
Your assignment:
Your assignment is to write a policy report review of the above-cited report.
Length:
750 to 1000 words, excluding references.
Guidelines:
Policy report reviews (i) synthesize the report’s key points; (ii) situate the arguments in the context of current debates, and (iii) offer your informed opinion about the report’s arguments. Your review should not be merely descriptive; rather, it should be (1) analytical/evaluative and (2) offer your opinion on the report. Writing your policy report review will require additional research beyond merely reading the report.
(Students sometimes confuse reviews with book reports, but the two are not the same. Book reports are descriptive, and focus primarily on giving an account of the major plot and characters. You might have been asked to write a book report in high school. This is not a book report assignment.)
Before you read the report:
Before you begin to read, take note of the following elements you will need to include in your review. As you read, make notes on these points. It will be much easier to write the review if you take notes while reading.
Author: Who are the author(s)? What is the mandate of the organization(s) which the author represents? How does this report relate to their mandate?
Title: What does the title mean? How is it symbolic or expressive of the key arguments? Does it adequately encapsulate the message of the text?
Audience: Who is the intended audience?
Preface/Introduction/Table of Contents: How does the author set the stage in the opening chapter? How is the argument structured?
Key Ideas: What are the main ideas/arguments of the work? What makes it unique or groundbreaking?
Themes: What themes are used to structure the arguments?
Argument: What are the report’s key arguments? Subsidiary arguments? Identify at least three arguments in total. What evidence is provided?
Strengths and weaknesses: What were the strongest aspects of the report? Weakest? Where did the author fail to convince you and why? What other things might the author have researched or considered?
Quotes: What quotes stand out? Incorporate at least three quotes into your review.
Tips for Writing your Review:
Your review should be between 750 and 1000 words.
Your review should include both a summary/analysis of the report and your evaluation/opinion. These should be roughly equivalent in length (i.e. about 50% of the word length for summary/analysis and about 50% of the word length for evaluation/opinion).
You may begin with a short summary or background of the work, but do not give too much away. Your summary should not take up more than half of the review.
In your summary, don’t focus too much on the first few sections; cover the entire scope of the report.
Deal only with the most pertinent/important issues in the report. You will not be able to cover every idea.
The review should also include your opinion of the work, but not only your opinion; you should balance analysis with opinion, and remember to back up your opinion with evidence.
Remember that your audience has not read the work. Provide a clear summary of the main arguments, assuming that this is new information to your reader.
Bibliography: If you cite other works, they will not be included in the word count. I recommend using APA citation style, but you can use any citation style you like as long as you are consistent.

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