How to Write a Book Report
How to Write a Book Report: Comprehensive Guidelines for Efficient Writing
If you want to succeed in book report assignments, which are frequently assigned by professors, it is necessary to know how to write a book report. Writing a successful book report can be challenging, difficult, and time-consuming as this process frequently involves more stages than merely writing. First of all, it is necessary to read the assigned book in detail. Here a student should manage time wisely since the book may be long, which means that it required much time to read everything in detail and find some additional sources for discussion if needed. Second, it is necessary to be well versed in theory when it comes to analyzing the writing style of the author, the storyline, the characters, etc. Last but not least, a student should have practical academic writing skills as well as good analytical and critical thinking skills. Therefore, it is vital to know how to do a book report.
The guidelines provided below will shed more light on the process of book report writing and will also provide some tips and clues taken from book report examples, namely papers previously written for the company’s clients. The article provided by our company’s professional writers will explore how to write a college book report and get a good grade. Keep reading and find out valuable tips and strategies for completing successful writing projects.
What Is a Book Report?
Before working on report writing, it is crucial to get a clear answer to the question, “What is a book report?” First of all, you need to understand that a book report is an informative type of writing. Second, you need to be able to identify the difference between book reports and book reviews. Hence, it is crucial to have a look at the similarities and differences between report and review writing.
When you need to write a book review, you are expected not only to provide a summary of the book but also critically assess and evaluate it according to different aspects. Moreover, you are frequently asked to provide your own opinion on the book in general or demonstrate your standpoint when it comes to the topic or specific aspects or themes outlined in the book.
When you conclude your review assignment, you need to pinpoint whether you recommend the book for further reading or not. Normally, book reviews are assigned in college but you may often come across review writing (for example, movie reviews or book reviews) in online blogs or other websites where readers/ viewers share their opinion and express recommendation about a specific literary or cinematographic work.
When it comes to what to include in a book report, you mainly have to focus on the summation of a book or any other literary work. Evaluation and critical assessment is not the primary task here. As a rule, report writing is assigned to high school or middle school students as this assignment does not predetermine the application of critical and analytical thinking skills. The length of such papers varies: it may range from 250 to 600 words or so. Moreover, depending on the academic level and complexity, the paper may have different requirements and aspects that have to be taken into consideration. In any case, despite the fact that the task of writing a book report may sound easy, it can greatly improve a student’s writing fluency, communication skills, as well as analytical skills.
Parts of a Book Report
Regardless of the task complexity, academic level or paper requirements, it is essential toknow about parts of a book report. Generally, a book report is made us of such constituents as:
- a brief summary of the book (i.e. the plot or storyline);
- analysis of the main book topics or themes;
- analysis of characters.
Regardless of the paper type you work on, keep in mind that the following points should be definitely included:
- major details about the book, its author, year of publication, publisher itself, etc. When focusing on the background information, make sure to mention historic, cultural or ethnic aspects that encouraged the author to write the book;
- focus on the time/ period/ epoch when the storyline takes place;
- highlight the plot of the book and setting;
- the main characters and their role in the book as well as the key facts about them;
- examples and illustrations from the book to support your viewpoint.
Steps How to Write a Book Report College
Before delving deeper into the variety of steps that will make the process of writing easier, you need to clearly understand that working on a book report involves pre-writing, writing, and post-writing stages. Read on and have a look at each of them.
Pre-Writing Stage
1. Select a book (if you have not been assigned one) for your analysis. Make sure you carry out a brief exploration of the book, the history of writing it, some information about the author, genre, etc. Think of the aspects that make one interested in the book.
2. Start reading. While reading, jot down the most important information and pay attention to the peculiarities of genre, the key events, settings, etc. Take into consideration symbols, topics, themes, literary devices, main ideas, etc.
3. Write down the most vivid quotes from the book that can be used as illustrative support for your arguments.
4. Make sure you organize your notes and brainstorm the ideas clearly. Provide specific headings, subheadings, lists, bullet points, etc. Make sure you have found sufficient information for discussing each category.
Writing Stage
1. Make sure your notes work for you. Try to distract most information from them and mold them in a fluent, logical, and clear form. When starting to write, make sure you fully realize why the book is significant and why it is worth of others’ attention. Think of how to start your opening paragraph and what appealing information to include. Stay creative and maintain your original thinking. Moreover, try to think of different logical connections and how to address them in your paper. Make sure you format your book report title page according to the paper requirements.
2. When writing your introduction, make sure to mention the title of the book, full name of the author, and the date of publication. Afterwards, include any other information that you consider relevant. Mention the genre of the book and highlight any other necessary facts. Keep in mind that you need to finish the introductory paragraph with a strong and clear argumentative thesis statement.
3. Move on to the main body of your paper. When developing body paragraphs, make sure to include book report ideas that you consider the most striking and important. Try to formulate them in the topic sentence of each body paragraph. When developing the main body, keep in mind that you provide an extended summary of the book and afterwards more on to a more detailed discussion. Make sure to adhere to the required book report format.
4. When concluding the report, make sure to reiterate the thesis and emphasize on the most important findings. Keep in mind that you should stress whether the book can be recommended for further reading. If relevant, share your own opinion on the book.
Post-Writing Stage
Provide a revision of the final draft. Pay consideration to the structure, the development of ideas (whether it is logical, smooth, and coherent), as well as formatting, citation, spelling, and grammar. Make sure you go through all editing and proofreading stages as well. Submit the paper only after you have closely proofread the paper.
How to Write a Book Report College Level
Writing a book report for college is similar to writing a book report for high school. Still, there are some differences and they mainly relate to formatting, writing style, and the way of expression. Frankly speaking, they are more complicated that book reports of high school level. When you are a college student, you need to learn how to apply critical and analytical thinking skills to your writing. Moreover, when you are a college-level student, you will be assigned book reports that differ in formatting styles. Therefore, be ready to learn such styles as MLA, APA, Harvard, Chicago, and others.
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