How to Write a Book Review

Before You Begin Remember, there is no right way to write a book review. Book reviews are highly personal and reflect the opinions of the reviewer. A review may be as short as words, or as long as 1500 words, depending on the purpose of the review. Before writing the review, be sure that you understand what type of review is required for your assignment. Keep your audience in mind! This will help define the emphasis you put on various parts of the review.

The Function of a Review Your review should do 3 things: –Describe what is on the page, –Analyze how the book tried to achieve its purpose, –Express your own reactions to the book.

Summary or Review? A book review is distinct from a summary in that it demands an analysis of and reaction to content that a summary does not. Whereas a summary is a report of what is written, a review both reports on and evaluates a book.

What to Put in A Book Review Identify your book. Identify the author. Identify yourself.

Identifying the Book Be sure to give your readers this information: –the author –the full title –the publisher –the place and date of publication –the edition

Identifying the Author Where appropriate, identify the author's qualifications, and any other personal information that is relevant to your discussion of the book. This may apply more to non-fiction works. If you have read other works by the same author, try to place the book with reference to the author's other writings.

Identifying Yourself People’s reactions to and opinions of a book will vary according to what they bring to the book. Let your audience know anything about yourself which may color your experience of the book. This may help your readers to determine how to evaluate your opinions of the material. –For example, “As a recent graduate student and new teacher, I found the author’s descriptions of classroom interaction to ring true, as the students in the book…”

Reading the book As you’re reading or preparing to write the review, ask yourself these questions: What are the author’s viewpoint and purpose? The viewpoint or purpose may be implied rather than stated, but often a good place to look for what the author says about his or her purpose and viewpoint is the introduction or preface. What are the author’s main points? Again, these will often be stated in the introduction. What group of readers, if any, would find this book most useful?

Reading the book What kind of evidence does the author use to prove his or her points? Is the evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does the author support his or her points adequately? How does this book relate to other books on the same topic? Is the book unique? Does it add new information?

Reading the book Does the author have the necessary expertise to write the book? What are the most appropriate criteria by which to judge the book? How successful do you think the author was in carrying out the overall purposes of the book?

WRITING THE BOOK REVIEW Although you should include what you feel is appropriate for explaining your assessment of a book, reviews generally include the following kinds of information. Most reviews start off with a heading that includes all the bibliographic information about the book. If your assignment sheet does not indicate which form you should use, you can use the following: Title. Author. Place of publication: publisher, date of publication. Number of pages.

Introduce the subject, scope, and type of book Again, Identify the book by author, title, and sometimes publishing information. Specify the type of book (for example, fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography). Help your readers to review with perspective. Mention the book's theme. Sometimes you will need to include background to enable readers to place the book into a specific context. For example, you might want to describe the general problem the book addresses or earlier work the author or others have done.

Briefly summarize the content For a nonfiction book, provide an overview, including paraphrases and quotations, of the book's thesis and primary supporting points. For a work of fiction, briefly review the story line for readers, being careful not to give away anything that would lessen the suspense for readers.

Provide your reactions to the book

Conclude by summarizing your ideas Close with a direct comment on the book, and tie together issues raised in the review.

Optional task 2 Write a book/movie/music review.