Useful Tips on How to Write a Worthy Book Review

Being a student, you will definitely get a task of writing a book review. This kind of paper aims to check students` understanding of the material read and develop their critical thinking. The assignment requires students to interpret their thoughts, perspectives, and impressions from a specific book.

Many students due to the lack of understanding find this task difficult. To make things clear, let us define what a book review is.

A book review is a piece of writing which should contain a description and your critical evaluation. The main goal of this assignment is to provide readers with the book summary content and your opinion about it. Your whole paper should define whether you recommend this book or not for potential readers.

Classic Book Review Structure

While writing a book review, you have to understand that a proper structure is vital. You have to follow it and include all the necessary elements in order to get a good grade. Below is the example of a book review structure.

• Title

You need to start your paper with its name. Then, you need to include the full bibliographic characteristic of the reviewed book.

• Introduction

It should not be too long – one paragraph will be enough. The introductory part of your essay should contain the background information and main aspects that will be further discussed. This is a part of your paper that needs to be catchy, in order to grab readers` attention. So, do not forget to make a strong thesis statement at the end of it.

• Body or Summary

The number of body paragraphs depends on your teacher`s requirements. Basically, there should be one or two paragraphs with the content summary, one paragraph for the book`s weak points, following by one paragraph for the book`s strengths.

• Analysis and Evaluation

This part of your book review contains critical commentary and defines how well the author managed his book from different aspects. Here you should discuss the author`s style, strengths and weaknesses, the author`s arguments, and achieved goals.

• Conclusion

The last paragraph should briefly and logically restate your thesis statement. In your conclusion, you need to summarize everything and define whether the book is worthy to be read.

Things to Remember While Writing a Book Review

• Writing a good book summary will not be enough. Besides it, you have to analyze the material providing your evaluation and judgment.
• You have to make judgments taking into account the intentions of the author, not yours. In order to do this, you need to understand which goals were set by the author, and then judge how well they were achieved.
• The paper should be organized around your main arguments. Your review should not include everything that was said in this or that book.
• Your review should not look like a big collection of author’s quotes. Certainly, you can use them but not too many. Sometimes, it is better just to paraphrase.
• Always remain objective and do not focus on the negative aspects of the book only. Make your opinion clear concerning things you like and those you do not. Remember that you have to explain both.
• Think about the audience this book can be recommended to.
• Find your own voice. One book can be perceived differently by different people. So, do not be afraid to express your true perspectives on the book. Be unique.

Following these tips, you will facilitate the process of your book review writing. Hopefully, you will make it out and get the highest grade.