No matter how we like to avoid writing book reports for different subjects in school, it is one of the things that teachers really require us to do in order to test our skills in giving interpretation and analysis to literary works. What students do not know is that accomplishing book reports can improve reading comprehension which is why it is often seen as a necessary academic requirement. However, some students just don’t have any idea on how to write a book report and make them worth reading.
Students struggle whether to include different themes from the book or just focus on one. They often get confused about the details that need to be included to create an A-grade book report. If you are one of these students, worry no more. We will end your worries and confusion right now!
Five Essential Things To Remember in Writing A Book Report
Book reports can be written in three effective ways such as plot summaries, theme analyses, and character analyses. However, if you fail to apply the important things on how to write a book report, the output may still be lacking. Therefore, in doing one, make sure to put these five essential things in mind:
1. Read the book
Don’t start laughing now. Lots of students do not actually read the entire book, and search for book summaries instead! If you apply this in your book report, rest assure that your teacher would easily notice and will refuse to give you a good grade for it. Efforts will be kind of wasted.
However, if you choose to obey your teacher and read the whole book, then expect good results! Given this, you’ll get to cite excellent details from the book and expound them.
2. Always include the basic information
In the writing process, don’t forget to identify the basic questions or information about the book. Some of the information is:
- Title of the book
- Author of the book
- Settings (including time and location where and when the story happened)
- Introduction of the characters
- Examples from the book to support your viewpoints
If you get to collect this information, then you are good to go! Always remember that the basic things are the foundation of your entire work. You cannot go writing an intricate book report without delving the primary details first.
3. Be keen on details!
This is a tricky skill to master. Unlike poems where language and structure are visible and obvious, novels and other books often make language invisible. Book authors have their own way of writing a story without you noticing the little details and structure they twisted within the language of a book.
Therefore, you need to practice improving yourself in detecting symbols from different literary works. Who knows? Maybe you can discover something that’s not yet existing about a certain book!
4. Ready your tools before reading
Things like sticky notes, highlighter, and colored pens are your weapons to create a good book report! If you’re reading ebooks, make sure to familiarize yourself with the annotation functions of the app you are using. These things will help you mark the details you need, and separate ideas as well.
Maximize their use to avoid the mixing of viewpoints and concepts from the book. Also, this has been considered as the most useful way to organize different insights in doing specific tasks, and you’re welcome.
5. Do a rough outline
Avoid getting lost in the process of writing. Do a constructive outline of your book report and use it as your guide! Surely, some of you already experienced getting off track while writing. In order to prevent that from happening, do a detailed and comprehensive outline that includes the theme you’re focusing on, and the necessary details about a specific book. Also, outlining will enable you to finish your work faster!
Things are getting clearer now. Always remember that these essential tips on how to write a book report are just the beginning of your journey in writing one. Along the way of doing so, you will get to discover more noteworthy things so allow yourself, and learn more to improve your book reports in the future!