Outside Reading: Book Review

March 21, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/books/review/book-review-the-most-human-human-by-brian-christian.html?_r=1&ref=books
David Leavitt, "I Took The Turing Test"
The Most Human Human by Brian Christian

David Leavitt uses many techniques to create a well written book review with one small flaw.  It is difficult to understand what the book is about, because Leavitt assumes that the reader knows much about technology.  As I do not understand technology well, I had problems knowing what he was saying.  The general idea was that in the book, a computer had been created that was more human than actual humans.
The diction used in this review gives a mature and sophisticated feel to the article.  He describes an article as a "landmark," and he discusses a "radical premise."  Another technique used to add to the high level of the writing is the multiple direct quotes used.  Throughout the article, Leavitt takes direct quotes from many different sources, which make the review seem very well researched and prepared.
I believe that this article could have been improved upon by actually taking out some of the quotes, and replacing them with opinions.  Taking this review one step further, by adding imagery, would have definately increased the interest of it.  There was very little imagery in this essay, so readers find little to take interest in and quickly lose their focus.
The syntax used in this article includes very long, run on sentences.  This does not add much to the essay - it actually detracts from it.  Longer sentences are more difficult to pay attention to, and I found myself losing focus and becoming bored as I read.  The few short sentences had much more impact than the longer sentences, but they were so widely spaced that it was difficult to stay interested between them.  In this way, the review reminded me of some parts of Heart of Darkness.
Leavitt uses very mature diction and many quotes, but I believe that the negatives outweight the positives.  Perhaps to somebody who is interested in technology, this essay would be interesting, but I found it to be boring and difficult to get through.  If Leavitt made some of his long sentences into shorter sentences and added more details that would allow the reader to use his or her imagination, the review would have been much better.
Based upon the mature and formal tone of this review, I believe that it would make a decent AP essay.  The AP graders are not necessarily looking to be interested, but they are looking for many quotes and a sophisticated feel, therefore I believe that this would be an appropriate AP essay.