Notes on Book Notes

From Scienticity

• To create a Book Note, you much have an account at Science Besieged. If you don't have an account, request on via the Comment Form.

• Book Note pages have titles made up of

1. the author's last name;
2. a colon; and
3. the book's title -- if the book has a subtitle, use just the short title for the page name

The colon follows the author's name without a space, but is itself followed by a space. Every word in the title begins with a capital letter. Recall: when typing the page name as a URL, use the underscore "_" in place of the space " ".

• To create the empty Book Note page, type its URL into your browser's location window:

http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Lastname:_Short_Title_Capitalized

• Every Book Note has these four parts:

1. A filled-in ratings template;
2. The book citation;
3. Notes on the book; and
4. A category template.

In the editing window, those elements look like this (using Sacks: Uncle Tungsten as an example):

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=5|hermeneutics=5|charisma=5|recommendation=5}}
Oliver W. Sacks, ''Uncle Tungsten : Memories of a Chemical Boyhood''. 
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2001. viii + 337 pages.

Oliver Sacks is a neurosurgeon and writer. His writing is engaging, lucid, and enlightening. 
In this volume he recounts events from his own youth with an immediacy that turns the personal
into the universal -- with enough amusing yet harrowing anectdotes to convince parents never 
to give chemistry sets to their children.

[[Category: Book Notes]]

You can cut and paste this example, replacing the necessary information for your own Book Note.

• In the ratings template, put in your own rating for each category using numerals 1 through 5. Ratings are discussed on the Book-Note Ratings Page.

• NB: the ratings template is surrounded by two curly braces, not square brackets. However, the "Category" at the bottom is surrounded by two square brackets.

• In the citation, italics are created by two aprostophes on each side of the italicized element; in the editing window, you can also select the text to be italicized and click the "I" button above the editing window.

• For the citation, we follow the US Library of Congress. Use a space around colons, and periods for punctuation between elements.

• The notes part of the Book Note may be abbreviated or extended; it is intended to inform visitors about the rationale for the ratings.