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College and school students are often assigned a book report or review. This assignment aims to develop a student’s analytical skills by interpreting impressions from a specific book.
Some students find writing a book review challenging due to the lack of understanding and can’t handle the task. If this sounds like you, this article will be quite handy. We are going to give you some valuable tips on writing this type of work easier and faster but let’s start with defining it and clarifying the differences between a book report and a review.
A book report gives an objective summary. Unlike a review, a report focuses on the main points of the composition, highlights the author’s main ideas, and provides readers enough details to help them decide whether a book is worth reading or not.
A book review gives a description and critical evaluation. The main purpose of this work is to give readers a summary of the content and a clear evaluation of the book. The final goal for a reviewer is to either recommend (or not) a specific work to potential readers.
How To Form A Coherent Structure Of A Book Review?
A coherent book review structure is vital for a good grade. Many students fail their assignments simply because they have no idea how to structure a book review and do not understand what needs to be included in the text.
Below is an example of a good book report structure. We have prepared a clear and detailed description of each section to write book report for me:
- Title – The name of your paper followed by the full bibliographic characteristic of the book under review;
- Introduction – your intro should be one paragraph long and contain background information and some significant facts. Be sure to include a strong thesis statement and include a hook to garner the reader's interest;
- Body or Summary – the number of body paragraphs is defined by the overall volume specified by the teacher, as a rule, you should make one or two paragraphs with a general summary of the text’s contents, one paragraph on the book’s weak points, and one paragraph on its strengths;
- Analysis and evaluation – this part provides critical commentary and defines how well the author has reached the objectives he or she had. This section should answer the following questions:
- Is the author’s style effective, hard to perceive, engaging, and/or powerful?
- Did the author achieve set goals?
- How can we evaluate the overall impression from the text (did you find it dull, engaging, fun, moving?)
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the text, are the author’s arguments convincing?
- Would you recommend this book?
- Conclusion – The concluding paragraph is a brief accord that should restate the thesis statement in a clear logical manner. Define whether readers should read the book. Make sure your conclusion is tightly bound to your thesis.
The structure of a book report is similar to a book review – the main difference is in the second case you need to give not only analysis but an evaluation and recommendation for or against reading a specific piece. Therefore, you can use a similar template. Adjust it a bit to your needs and you won’t make a mistake!
Frequent Pitfalls To Avoid When Writing A Book Review
Writing an academic paper, there are certain mistakes to avoid, so below are the ones you should be aware of when working on this task.
- It is not enough to write a simple summary. A review assumes you will analyze the piece and give an objective evaluation, go beyond restating the most important points, also make a judgment.
- Make a judgment by the author’s intentions, not yours. You shouldn’t criticize the text because you thought it should look different. Try to understand the goals and intentions the author had and judge how well he or she had coped with them.
- Organize your paper around the main arguments. Do not try to cover everything! Avoid fitting everything the book has into a small review.
- Using quotes is good until there are too many – do not make your paper one big collection of author’s quotes, sometimes, it is better to paraphrase.
- Don’t focus only on flaws. Any artwork can have certain gaps and it is important to highlight the most significant ones, but do not focus only on the negative points, be objective, and keep your criticism brief.
Hopefully, you will handle this task with our tips. Following our advice, you will avoid making the most common mistakes and get a deserved high grade. However, if you lack the time or still have some misunderstanding on how to deal with a book or article review writer, consider using our professional review writing service. Our professional writers will gladly assist you!
