How to Write a Book Report

Writing a book report, though it seems a tedious task offers you a great chance to understand the work of the author. The important thing you should understand is that you should straightforwardly provide an informative summary.

Your first step in writing a book report includes: identifying the right book and start reading. As you proceed, you should take detailed annotations and notes to help you develop a solid outline. Following these steps makes your writing process more comfortable. Your book report should address a particular point of view, ideas, or question and support it with examples and evidence from the book, such as themes and symbols. You should also include the author and the title of the book in your report.

Book reports are often assigned to students in high school and college, and if you’re one of those unlucky students WriteAnyPapers assignment experts are ready to help you!

What is a book report?

Book report provides insightful information regarding the specific work of the author. Though similar to the book review, book report has fundamental differences.  A book review offers an analysis of the account of different types of books by providing a summary on the account and content. When writing the book report, evaluate why you chose it, and provide personal opinion or ideas concerning the text. Moreover, you can recommend the book to other readers based on your assessment and feeling towards it. In most cases, book reports are typically high school and college assignments. In rare cases, they are written by professionals and are published in journals, magazines newspapers, among other areas.

The main aim of writing book reports is to give a summary of a given literature work rather than providing an evaluation. Teachers provide this assignment for high school and college assignments to test their overview understanding of the book. College book report analysis helps the students to improve their communication and analytical skills. It also helps in the master of other techniques such as writing a bibliography and expressing their opinions and thoughts regarding various things they have learned from the book.

What elements a book report includes?

Your level of study determines the elements to include in the book report. Higher grade and middle-grade learners should consist of the following elements in their book report:

1. Summary of the plot
2. Theme analysis
3. Character analysis

When writing a book report, you should explain to the author why they should read it pointing the interesting part of the book, how it is organized, ease of readability and understanding. Some of the elements you should capture include the following:

• The primary information concerning the book, including: author, page number, year of publication, title of the book, and publisher
• The setting of the book and the time in which the text is based
• Setting and plot of the text
• Names of the characters, facts about them and why they are interesting
• Examples and quotes from the book supporting your claim.
• Generally, when writing a college book report, include the following:
• Details of the book

This includes listing the name of the book, author, reason why you chose this book, is the title interesting or any other reason that prompted you to pick that specific book.

1. Setting

Offer detailed explanation on where the story took place in the farm, city, and forest, among others. How is the place set up? Here, you should give depth description of the area using as much information as possible.

2. Characters

These are the players in the story. You should state if there were the main character. Remember to include names for all the characters.

3. The story

You should offer a description of what happened in the story. Problems encountered by the characters’ themes. Remember to provide a detailed description of what happened in various scenes of the book.

4. Your thoughts

Here, you give your perception or feeling towards the book. Did you like the story, did you love how it is organized. Did the story made you feel happy, sad, and would you recommend someone to read the book?

How to start a book report?

1. Read the book

After you pick the book that interest you or the one required to read by your school or your teacher, make sure you have read the entire book. At this point, do not attempt to write anything but the first concentrate to read and understand the text. Pay attention to themes, characters, plot, and arguments.

You can take a break of 5 to 10 minutes and read for 40 minutes to one hour to keep your brain sharp and attentive.

Ensure you have enough time to read the book since writing a book report after scanning the text is disastrous.

Avoid online book summaries since they do not offer accurate information about the book.

2. Take notes on emerging themes and patterns

While reading, you should carefully take notes, use a pencil or a highlighter. If you are using an e-book, you can use notepad or word document to document your notes. Note the interesting things, character, or points made by the author. Establish enough evidence and detailed explanation to support your claim; for instance, use quotes directly from the text.

3. Develop an outline

An outline offers a guideline or direction on how your essay will be organized. A well-organized outline should include what each paragraph will discuss and relevant information for your book report. However, this might change as you write your report; therefore, you need to be flexible.

Review your outline again to ensues it is well organized and sensible. Ensure the paragraphs have flow and proper transition. Make sure to have an outline since it saves you a lot of editing. You can always use the following outline for your book report:

4. Develop paragraph ideas

Develop the ideas and concepts that you will include in every paragraph. Knowing what to include in every paragraph makes it easier for you to write the final copy and eliminates the chances of repeating concepts, ideas, or information.

How to write a book report in 4 Steps

1. Start with the book details

While writing a book report, you cannot include all the content in your essay. However, you start by providing the book details and some book report format requirements. You include the title of the book, the year it was published, the author, page number, book edition.

2. Continue with a brief summary of the book

Since it is not possible to cover everything in the book, you should provide a summary. By trying to cover everything you are setting yourself for failure. Therefore, you should focus on the most import ideas in the book and aim to give the reader a real feeling of the book.

3. Describe the book’s character and plot

Briefly describe the characters involved in the book, the roles they play, and how they enhance the theme. Describe the plot in details to help the reader picture the context of the book. You should mention the various where the scene takes place to help your teacher understand what you are referring to. However, you should ensure to provide sufficient details to help your audience understand the setting of the story. For instance, clearly, describe whether the setting is futuristic or imagined.

4. Summarize important points

Provide a summary of the important points you found in the book. In summary, assemble all the necessary information together by including quick statements that summarize the book. Remember to include a strong statement on whether you will recommend someone else to read the book and give a reason why.

How to write a book report at the college level

One of the common forms of assignment for college students is book report writing. These assignments assess, among other things, including critical thinking skills, analytical, and writing skills. They are more complicated compared to high school assignments. The following is an explanation of how to write a college-level book report.

College level paper for book report requires to write a summary and also provide informed evaluation and analysis of the text. The essay requires the student to use the proper format. Use proper style or template given by the teacher and example from the books recommended by the school to organize your bibliography and citations. It can be either MLA or APA.

You should include the following in your college-level book report:

• Your target audience
• Bibliographic information about your chosen text
• Background information about the text
• Write the thesis statement in your words and clearly.
• Book content summary
• Provide critical analysis and evaluation to support the claim from the text.

Creative book report ideas

You come up with a creative game based on your chosen text. Indicate the various section of the book report on the card. Design a raffle and ask students to choose them randomly. The raffles indicate the various outline of the book report, and the student will have to come up/design with an element of the book report depending on the raffle they select. These elements include:

1. Details of the book
2. Theme
3. Setting/ plot
4. Character analysis
5. Analysis and evaluation
6. Your thoughts
7. Conclusion