Trade Book Review Assignment :: PRCA 3711/4711
For my PRCA 3711/4711 Students:
(If you are in my PRCA 3030 class, see your Trade Book Review assignment on a different page of my blog.)
Due: March 2 by 11:59pm: Submit the link to your blog post with the embedded PowerPoint to the Assignments area in GeorgiaVIEW

One of our assignments this semester is for you to read and review a trade book on public relations. In the left sidebar of this blog is a list of books for you to choose from. (You can also see this complete list at my Amazon.com Public Relations Trade Books page that I created for you.)
Your book review will take the form of a professional-looking PowerPoint presentation designed to be presented in 5-7 minutes. Rely more on images to tell your story than bullet points. (We’ll discuss more in class about how not to create a “Death by PowerPoint” slidedeck.) Put your notes for the presentation in the Notes panel in PowerPoint.
Your PPT presentation should include:
- Opening slide should include an image of the book’s cover, along with author & title of the book and your name
- Short bio of the author(s) of the book (perhaps with a photo of the author)
- What did you learn by reading this book?
- What surprised you in this book?
- What do you want to learn more about, now that this book has piqued your interest?
- Would you recommend other students to also read this book? Why or why not?
- Final slide: your contact information (photo optional)
Once you choose the book, reply with a comment to this blog post so that you can “claim” the book for yourself. I prefer that we have no more than four people in the class reviewing any one book. You should choose a book before the end of January so you have ample time to read it before the assignment due date.
Upload your book review to SlideShare and embed the slides in your blog. Indicate to your blog readers that if they visit Slideshare, they can see your notes on each slide there. Presentations that have no notes on the slides cannot earn more than 1/2 credit.
Optional:
- Record the audio of your presentation and sync it with the slides to create a slidecast (narrated PowerPoint); embed the slidecast in your blog.
- Record video of yourself delivering the presentation, upload it to YouTube, and embed the video in your blog.
- If you’re using Twitter, search for the authors of your book there and connect with them. You may be surprised how willing most of them are to reply to you when you @ them.
- Leave a comment about your thoughts on the book on the author’s blog.
Questions about this assignment?

NOTE: If you are in another of my classes with a similar Trade Book Review Assignment, you will need to review separate books for each class.



January 18th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
[...] you are in my PRCA 3711/4711 class, see your Trade Book Review assignment on a different page of my [...]
January 19th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
This is the one i want: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR….
January 19th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I will Read “PR 2.0″
January 19th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
I would like to read: “Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business!”
January 20th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
I’m going to read the following book for this assignment: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR.
January 28th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
I will be reading Twittersville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods for our Trade Book Review assignment!
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:35 am
I will be reading Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li for this assignment.
-Meghan Beytagh
February 9th, 2010 at 9:07 am
I’m planning on doing my review on the book “Naked Conversations.”
February 16th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
I will be doing my Tradebook project on: —->Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It by: Monica O’brien
February 16th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Professor Nixon,
I’ll be reading The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business (Hardcover) by Tara Hunt!
February 17th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Professor Nixon,
I would like to read Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business by Erik Qualman
February 17th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
I will be reading Read This First: The Executive’s Guide to New Media-from Blogs to Social Networks by Ron Ploof
February 21st, 2010 at 1:23 pm
I’m going to read Full Frontal PR: Building Buzz About Your Business, Your Product, or You by Richard Laermer.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I’m reading The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:11 pm
I’m going to read Twitterville!
February 24th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
I will be reading Twitterville!
February 26th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I will read, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
February 28th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
I chose to read Twitterville!..
March 1st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
I will be reading Tribes by Seth Godin!
March 1st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I chose Tribes by Seth Godin.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:16 pm
I would like to do my presentation on the book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I will be doing Twitterville
March 1st, 2010 at 11:05 pm
I’ll be doing Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Whoops, know I’m late I read Socialnomics by Qualman
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Oops! I put my book under the trade book assignment for 3030… I read Here Comes Everybody by Shirky.
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business As Usual
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:50 pm
I choose to read Twitterville by Shel Israel
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 pm
[...] of Social Media Marketing Review For the Trade Book Assignment in PR Practicum, I chose Paul Gillin’s Secrets of Social Media Marketing. I have created a [...]