Guide on Writing Engaging Book Reports
This assignment is one of the oldest in the academia. Reading books and presenting professors with the reflection regarding their plot and style is almost as old as an educational process itself. It is hard to find a person who has never written a book report in his or her life.
However, its popularity doesn’t make it less complicated and challenging. More of it, as time passes, new requirements are applied. Each educational institution has some instructions regarding this task which may slightly differ from the general requirements. It means that before you jump into action using our rules and tips, you have to check if they comply with the instructions presented by your professor to this course.
Rule #1. Don’t Forget about the Thesis Statement
You may think that writing a thesis statement is a must only when it comes to some extended assignments such as research papers, dissertations, capstone projects, etc. Wrong! Writing a book report you have to include a coherent thesis statement into your introduction. Beware, your thesis statement can’t just repeat the commonly perceived main idea of the book’s plot. The thesis statement serves as a spine of your book report — everything you write later is written to support it.
Rule #2. Using Details Is a Winning Strategy
Your professor has read hundreds of book reports regarding the particular book, and it is very hard not to bore him or her to death with your ideas and conclusions. One of the proven ways to show to advantage is to pay attention to the details of the plot and author’s writing style while reading a book. Everyone is capable of describing a central theme, but you should find some seemingly minor ideas and present them as some insightful findings. Pay attention to the colors, interiors described, a period of the day when an action takes place, etc.
Rule #3. Don’t Make Reflection too Personal
Mostly, disregarding of the year of education, the book report assignment requires a student to give his or her personal opinion about the material under discussion. It seems fun, but it is the most tricky part. You can’t just write that the book was good or bad in your opinion, you should elaborate on your attitude without getting too personal or vulgar. Pay attention to the following points: How did you understand the tone? Is the core idea of the book clear enough? Which books of the same author you’ve read? Which books touching the similar problems you know? How does the book, its characters and plot reflect your own life?
Rule #4. Don’t be Carried Away by the Urge to Criticize
Unfortunately, too many students, and even professional reviewers see book report writing as an opportunity to judge someone harsh. Most of the students tend to think that if they don’t criticize the literary work enough their report will lack something, will be seen as weak. Lots of negative assumptions don’t actually mean that you have conducted a top-notch analysis. Each book has its virtues and disadvantages and it is exceptionally important to keep a fine balance between describing them. The easiest way to follow this rule is to balance every negative remark with a positive one. It is not as difficult as you imagine. You can write, for example, that despite the key idea of the plot is not clear from the first glance, a writer gives an opportunity to its readers to come up with their own conclusions based on their experience. Be generous, professors value that.
We must admit that writing a book report is not the most complex academic tasks, but students just often don’t have enough time to deal with it at the required level. If you find yourself in the described situation, you should never use free online samples to make the process easier for you. There is a good reason for that — all of them are plagiarized, and all of them are written in the “condensed” manner, so you cannot use them even as an example of formatting. Ordering custom written book reports is a viable option, but you have to find a reliable service. Start reading and writing on time, follow the general rules and tips characteristic to your particular course and you won’t need any external assistance.
