2014-15 NATS 1775 Book Assignment Guidelines
Instructor: Dr. Vera Pavri

One of the books that you have been assigned in this course is Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks and Big Pharma Flacks. It is an excellent book that describes how the media portrays scientific and technical knowledge to the general public (often erroneously). This book also contains a lot of information that you might find useful when doing your own technological controversy paper later on.

The purpose of this assignment is simple: I want you to tell me what you have learned from reading this book that you did not know before you started reading it. This means that I am NOT asking you to write a traditional book review where you provide me with a general outline about the book and then your opinion about it generally. What I want is for you to describe four or five things that you learned from reading this book and why you think this is important information to know. You can also provide me with your own thoughts about each particular issue you discuss. Feel free to agree with the author or be critical about what he has to say.

This assignment should be about 500-750 words (2-3 pages double spaced). No title pages please. Please separate each example in your discussion. You can use first person when doing this assignment. Please make sure to reference the book when discussing Goldacre’s ideas as this will also allow me to see whether you have actually read the book. In addition, make sure to use the 2010 (latest) edition of the book. If you are using an e-book, you will