Writing Great Book Reviews
Reading, Note Taking, Outlining to Persuade Readers
Well-written book reviews illuminate the positives and negatives of a novel or non-fiction book for a potential reader.
With time at such a premium for many people, they turn to book reviews to make choices for their limited reading time. A good review can give a reader enough information to tweak his or her interest, or make that reader reconsider and choose another book.
How to Get Started
The first step in writing a great book review is, of course, to read the book. Remember that you are not reading for pleasure, you are reading for work, so as you read make notes about:
- The book’s main themes or arguments
- The things you like about the book
- The things you dislike about it
- The audience for this book
- The quality of the writing: Does the writing flow easily?; Is the book a pleasure to read?; Is it confusing and hard to read?
- Note, also, particular passages that you may return to for a short quote (50 words or less) for your review
When You Have Finished Reading
When you have finished reading, use the notes you made to create an outline for your review (read more about this in How To Outline An Article). As with any outline for any piece of writing, this one will tell you where your review is starting and finishing, and cut down on re-writing time.
Writing The Book Review
When writing your review include information about the author: his or her credentials for writing the book, titles of other books he or she has written.
Try to discuss one point per paragraph; three to five points in total should work well in a short review. For a longer review you may double or triple this depending upon the publication for which you are writing and its book review style.
Remember that you shouldn’t be worried about your writing style in the first draft. Forget about the mechanics of writing, such as spelling, proper tense, and punctuation. The first draft is for following your outline and getting your ideas down on paper, or on the computer screen. It is in the rewriting stage that the real writing and polishing are done.
Rewriting
After completing your first draft, put it aside for an hour or two, if you have the time, so that when you begin rewriting, you will approach the work with fresh eyes.
When you have completed your rewrite, read the review aloud. If you stumble in places when reading, that is a sign that the writing may not be as clear as it could be. Ask yourself: Is my point unclear here? Do I need to simplify the language I’ve used? With answers to those questions you will know if more work needs to be done.
