A book review is one of the most critical assignments a student gets to do in their academic circle. You have to engage in thoughtful discussion on the different aspects of the book. At the same time, you also have to evaluate the author’s arguments and evidence.
Not all students tactfully handle it to perfection. But if you want to develop this art, you have to be thoroughly disciplined with your approach.
Do you find it a bit difficult with book reviews? In that case, let us tell you you are in the right place. The essay discusses the different ways through which you can approach the book review for your essay assignment. So let’s try to understand it here in detail.
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How To Write Extensive Book Reviews
Writing a book review has a particular structure and pattern, but the work requires a good understanding of the literary genres. The reviewer must be a master in grasping the subject, and not only the professional must have the technical knowledge. You can get it all with the help of professional essay-writing services like Fresh Essays.
But when you do it in school, college, and university, it means you are learning the basics of it. So the section puts forth the ways through which you must approach your entire work. Therefore we have discussed it along with the basics.
What Is A Review?
Let’s start the discussion with the basics. What is a review? The review is a critical evaluation of a text. English Literature has many genres, like short stories, books, articles, exhibitions, and performances.
The ultimate objective of a book review is to make an argument. It allows you to enter into a dialogue and discuss the different segments of the work of art. You can agree or disagree completely with certain aspects of the work. You also find out the positives as well as negatives of the work. When you are doing a review, you have to follow a certain approach in doing it. Generally, reviews are found in the newspaper and journals (weekly or monthly). They are also found on the different websites dedicated to the following genre.
The Two Approaches To Reviewing A Book
There are two approaches to reviewing a book, and they include Descriptive review and Critical review.
Descriptive Review
With the descriptive review, the writer presents the content and the structure of the book in an objective manner. Here the author states the aims and objectives of doing the review. While doing it, you can incorporate passages and highlight key elements in work. This is the way things go with this style and approach.
Critical Review
The critical review of a book is all about the evaluation of the book against literary standards. Even here, the reviews draw lines from the text to highlight the positives and the negatives the book has to offer. By reading the reviews, you can understand how successfully the writer reached the objectives.
Common Features Of A Book Review
Now that you have got a basic definition of review, you can easily deduce its common features. We draw the basic features of a book review from the definition itself.
1. Concise Summary
With the help of the review, the readers get a concise description of the book. Here you can understand the story, the intricate analysis of segments as well as the overall purpose of the essay.
2. Critical Assessment Of The Content
Just like the writer who conceptualizes the story by picking up good reviewers and studying them, the reviewer also offers a critical assessment of the different aspects of the book. The author puts their own arguments here. Now the reviews say whether or not the arguments made by the author were logical enough.
3. Authenticity Of The Overall Quality Of The Work
The book review presents a critical aspect of the authenticity and overall quality of the work. A writer gives his/her all to make the work a grand success. The reviewer tells whether or not the work stands against the standards set before by the same author or some other work of the same category.
Overcoming The Monumental Task (Book Review)
Here we come to the main section of our discussion, that is, the ways to write an extensive book review for your essay.
1. The Initial Steps
Firstly you have to read the book carefully and also read the notes and materials which are relevant in reaching the author’s argument. After you reach the book’s principal argument, you can now tell about the evidence that the author used in the book.
2. Organization
The success of any work of art is organization. Here you first mention the name of the author, its publication, edition date, and finally, the costs of the book in the market.
Now you come to introduce the book. Provide a brief appraisal of your key observations on the interesting aspect of the book.
Now you can draw out the thesis statement that emerges from the book. The thesis statement is the argument that the author has put forth throughout his book. You now give your own evaluation of the author’s argument.
Describe the source that the author took help from to establish his/her argument and how it stands on the pedestal of history, contemporary society, and, lastly, logic.
Questions That You Need To Consider For Your Review
While writing the review, you need to consider questions. Here we give a few of them.
- What is the principal argument of the author?
- What are the things the author wishes to touch upon in his book?
- What evidence does the author use to justify the argument?
- Finally, how well has it been put to today’s perspective?
Do not write these questions but answer them to make things.
Finally!
The be-all and end-all of any review are to reach a conclusion on the quality of work. A writer puts his/her all into the book to make it a success. But they are human beings, and it is impossible for an individual to understand how effective it can be to stand the test of authenticity and success.
But critical reviews are generally put in a balanced way to respect and not castigate the work, which took quite a length of time and confident efforts. We hope that the students will be able to benefit from the discussion and write it effectively. Only then will the objective reach its fruition.
