If you don’t know how to write a book report, you need to learn the definition of the notion and the steps on how to complete it. Many students usually confuse a report and a summary. A summary of any publication is a concise description of the plot, while a report is a critical discussion and review of the piece. You may complete a book report on a fiction and a nonfiction work. This is a common assignment you may receive in colleges and universities.
If have a task to write a review, you either do it yourself or you can buy book reports from online writing companies. Remember that a report is not only an academic assignment. There are many professional papers published in newspapers, magazines, and even scientific journals depending on the piece under review. Thus, this is a serious assignment, which prepares you for a variety of writing projects.
First of all, you need to define a work you are going to review. Check whether you have an opportunity to choose a piece or you have to report on a specific work your teacher assigns. A book choice is also not an easy task. If you are free to choose any piece for review, you are responsible for your choice. The chosen publication should carry a specific meaning, be informative, and contribute to the subject you study. You should have a clear vision of how your book review may contribute to others and why you choose it.
How to Start a Book Report
Any book report should start with a summary. You have to indicate the main idea of the publication, discuss its plot, define the main characters, and point to the idea the author wished to deliver. Make sure to summarize everything but do not focus on small details. A book report should also contain your vision, judgment, and opinion regarding the piece.
A book report is usually a short piece of 250-500 words. Even though this type of paper is short, you still need to divide it into three major meaningful parts, namely the introduction paragraph, the main body of your book report, and the conclusion. Sometimes you may write larger reports, and this is also fine. Just stick to the instructions provided.
No matter how long your report is, you should develop your ideas in a logical flow. Introduce the book and the author in the first paragraph. Define the main idea of the plot and the theme delivered. Develop a thesis statement that will reflect your final judgments regarding the work. Summarize the plot and provide your interpretation of the book in the main body. You may have either one or several paragraphs in this section depending on the number of your ideas and the overall length of the paper. Always finish your report with a conclusion. Yet, the conclusion should not summarize what you have written repeating the summary but express your personal opinion about the book. Do you like it or not? Why? Would you recommend it to your friends? Why? These questions will help you write your final paragraph.
Pay Attention to the Plot
A book report should contain a summary of the plot. This section is located in the main body of your paper and summarizes the major events described in the book. If you write a report on a nonfiction book, you may be puzzled about what to discuss in the body section as such pieces don’t have the main character and the events to consider. A report on nonfiction pieces provides information about the major ideas and concepts discussed in the selected publication. You don’t have the main character and the events there, but you have the central themes and some subordinate topics that support the major idea. This is what you have to discuss in this section.
Remember that plot summary is not a mere enumeration of the facts and events from the book. You don’t write a simple summary. You express your opinion, evaluate the facts, question and doubt the statements, express your interpretation, and provide judgment regarding the points you discuss. The body of your book report does not only summarize the major facts from the book but also provides your review and analysis of the statements.
Summarize the Content
The introduction of your paper is the first paragraph in your writing. The introduction should contain information about the book and a summary of the plot without interpretation. Mind that your introduction should concisely summarize the book content. It is better to list the major point you want to discuss and further develop your paper focusing on this list of ideas. Use it as an outline for writing.
Your book review should start with a general overview of the plot. Don’t give any interpretation or personal judgment in this section. Just make a summary of the major events and ideas from the book that should take a very short part of your review. Your readers should understand what publication you summarize. Your summary should be interesting for those who didn’t read the book. That is why you need to provide the details, but at the same time, don’t go deep into the discussion because the summary should be short and to the point.
Discuss the Character
The analysis of the main character is central after you have discussed the plot. You have to consider the major skills and features of your character and discuss why he/she has behaved in this particular way in specific situations. The more details you manage to provide to back up your interpretation, the stronger your discussion will be. If you write a book report on a non-fiction piece, you do not have the main character. However, you have a major idea, and you can discuss the life situations where these ideas may be implemented.
For example, you discuss a publication on management. The book provides some basic theories and situations that may occur in business life. You may discuss the situations with their reference to real life, the current market conditions, and recent legal policies depending on your subject and your background knowledge.
Interpretation and analysis of the characters imply your ability to refer your knowledge to the author’s concepts. Try to apply as many things and ideas from the book you can. Refer to events, facts, theories, and other ideas discussed. If there is a main character in the chosen piece, and he/she makes some actions at the moment, you may consider how the events from the beginning of the book impacted the development of the character and his/her decision to act in a particular way.
Points to Remember
A report is a piece that allows you to summarize the major ideas from the publication, analyze the major events, and provide your interpretation of the facts. The main purpose of a report is to allow a reader to understand what the publication is about without reading the whole piece. The book you analyze may be too long, while you as a student should write a concise report on a couple of pages. This article gives some basic ideas of how to write a book report. You may use this information as a guide for writing. We hope that these book report writing tips will help you compose your papers without problems. Start reading the book you need to work on, make notes while reading, and write a review following the pieces of advice we suggest. You can do it with pleasure and without much tension. Choose interesting works or those which can contribute to your personal and/or professional development, and this personal interest in the piece will help you succeed.