How to Write a Book Review


by Sandra Williams


A book review is a description, critical analysis, and an evaluation on the quality, meaning, and significance of a book, not a retelling. It should focus on the book's purpose, content, and authority. A critical book review is not a book report or a summary. It is a reaction paper in which strengths and weaknesses of the material are analyzed. It should include a statement of what the author has tried to do, evaluate how well (in the opinion of the reviewer) the author has succeeded, and presents evidence to support this evaluation.

Pay attention. That isn't a disciplinary command like, "Don't let your mind wander!" Instead, pay attention to your reading experience. This is the first real challenge for most people. What caught your attention, and when were you bored? When was the book suspenseful? Which characters did you like, and why?

There is no definitive method to writing a review, although some critical thinking about the work at hand is necessary before you actually begin writing. Thus, writing a review is a two-step process: developing an argument about the work under consideration, and making that argument as you write an organized and well-supported draft.

The determination of the book review is to communicate to the reader's mind the ideas and sensations the revieweBookEr experienced while researching the content. In this way, the reader knows what the author sought to transmit or what the reviewer experienced while reading. The reviewer, then, takes three roles: reporter, in informing the third party of the events; analyst, in making judgments based on experience; and sideline observer, in pretending to act as the reader should by expressing their own opinion, desires and expectations.

The task is even more complicated as the writer could unintentionally imply the idea the reviewer of the book can notice. Then the book reviewer has to decide upon the author's point's validity. The reviewer has to be the judge. The reviewer here makes a judgment on the adequacy of the book topic to the content. The book review also evaluates the expertise of the content's authenticity.




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