Posts Tagged ‘Writing the Book Review’
February 22nd, 2009 | 
Author: Book reviews generally include the following kinds of information; keep in mind, though, that you may need to include other information to explain your assessment of a book.
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.
Like most pieces of writing, the review itself usually begins with an introduction that lets your readers know what the review will say. The first paragraph usually includes the author and title again, so your readers don’t have to look up to find this information. You should also include a very brief overview of the contents of the book, the purpose or audience for the book, and your reaction and evaluation.
You should then move into a section of background information that helps place the book in context and discusses criteria for judging the book.
Next, you should give a summary of the main points of the book, quoting and paraphrasing key phrases from the author.
Finally, you get to the heart of your review—your evaluation of the book. In this section, you might discuss some of the following issues:
• how well the book has achieved its goal
• what possibilities are suggested by the book
• what the book has left out
• how the book compares to others on the subject
• what specific points are not convincing
• what personal experiences you’ve had related to the subject.
It is important to use labels to carefully distinguish your views from the author’s, so that you don’t confuse your reader.
Then, like other essays, you can end with a direct comment on the book, and tie together issues raised in the review in a conclusion.
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Book reviews generally include the following kinds of information; keep in mind, though, that you may need to include other information to explain your assessment of a book.
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.
Like most pieces of writing, the review itself usually begins with an introduction that lets your readers know what the review will say. The first paragraph usually includes the author and title again, so your readers don’t have to look up to find this information. You should also include a very brief overview of the contents of the book, the purpose or audience for the book, and your reaction and evaluation.
You should then move into a section of background information that helps place the book in context and discusses criteria for judging the book.
Next, you should give a summary of the main points of the book, quoting and paraphrasing key phrases from the author.
Finally, you get to the heart of your review—your evaluation of the book. In this section, you might discuss some of the following issues:
• how well the book has achieved its goal
• what possibilities are suggested by the book
• what the book has left out
• how the book compares to others on the subject
• what specific points are not convincing
• what personal experiences you’ve had related to the subject.
It is important to use labels to carefully distinguish your views from the author’s, so that you don’t confuse your reader.
Then, like other essays, you can end with a direct comment on the book, and tie together issues raised in the review in a conclusion.
There is, of course, no set formula, but a general rule of thumb is that the first one-half to two-thirds of the review should summarize the author’s main ideas and at least one-third should evaluate the book.
