How to Write a Book Review

By Akshay Sharma July 9, 2018 Review

Writing a book review may sound simple at the first time, but if you decide to complete this task, you will find out that it has its difficulties and peculiarities. However, it is not the worth reason for panic and if you are supposed to have your book review completed, study the following instructions.

There are several things that you should take into the consideration before reading a text. The first thing you are supposed to pay attention to is the title of the book. Think carefully about it and try to understand what it suggests and how you can use it in the review. After that, consider the introduction or preface as they can include important data about the desire of the author concerning the book. Discover if the author mentioned all the subject’s aspects or some of them were ignored. You should also pay attention to the table of contents. Your task is to understand the way of organizing this book and to get its main ideas. Discover how these ideas are presented and in what way they are developed.

While reading the text, you need to think about lots of things including the genre and the field of this book. You need also consider what point of view is presented in the text and mention if you agree with such ideas. In order not to forget all the important aspects, take a piece of paper and note down everything that you will later use while writing. To sound more accurately, you will need some quotes from the book, so prepare them in advance. Think about the style of writing: is it formal or informal and how it refers to the audience?

The next things to ponder are the concepts and ideas. Try to distinguish whether the concepts are well stated, and the language is understandable to the audience. Consider the way of developing ideas. Are they developed and what fields are still uncovered? You should also think about the level of accuracy when you examine the information in the text.

Another aspect to pay attention to is the way that the author used to organize his book. Is the book divided into chapters? Does it include the summary or convincing? Take into the consideration a format, noticing if there are maps and illustrations and what pieces of information they carry. Study the sources that the author used for the content and discover whether they are primary or secondary and if you notice some omissions, note them down. The last step is to compare this book with the similar of other writers. You can use the given bibliography to help you.

After considering all of these questions, you may start completing the review. Do not forget the fact that the review is not the same as a simple book summary. Beginning your paper, you should state the title, the name of the author, place, publisher, edition, pages and other important information. After that, you need to catch the readers’ attention with your first capturing sentence. Be confident that you are fully acknowledged with the instructions as some of the editors want to receive a summary of the plot, but others do not.

Present some information about the writer that would refer to the book and will serve as an additional background data. There is one more useful aspect that you should pay attention when you are setting a tone of review – your audience. You are going to sound appealing specifically to your readers and to achieve this goal, try to distinguish who they are. In the concluding paragraph give a short summary of what you have discussed and try to leave the feeling of completeness.

If you are going to complete a fiction book review, pay attention to the characters and their role in the whole story. Additionally, you should express your attitude to the characters and the problems that the author raised in his work. State your opinion about the story and mention what part you like the most. Think about the type of person that would like such book and leave your recommendations.

Bio
My name is Erica Fleming . I’m a student of the Literary Department and a blogger. I support the effective adoption of new technologies or ways of working within writing by communicating complex information in an informative and inspiring way. I’m fond of writing articles for students, helping with essays. My works you can see at sutree.com