EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WRITING BOOK REVIEWS
A book review is not simply a summary of some work; it’s about critical discussion, presenting book’s strengths and weaknesses. Usually, it is a brief description of author’s key points and your own evaluation of the work. If you need help with writing a literature review, here are some useful tips.
• Read the book carefully If it’s possible, read it several times because this will help to see book’s characters and key aspects from a different perspective. Then, take notes. The main point here is to brainstorm all your thoughts and impressions after reading.
• Research about the author Everything is important: who the author is, what other publications he/she has composed, what style he/she usually uses, whether the author is famous or just a beginner in the writing field.
• Look at a book’s genre You need to find out the genre of the book (fiction, drama, mystery, biography, fantasy, etc), determine its audience and the purpose of the work.
• Define the main themes of the work There can be several themes in the book, especially if it is a fiction. Estimate how well the author develops them, what areas he/she has covered and which ones the author has missed.
• Look at the book’s format The book’s layout, binding, fonts, typography, a presence of visual materials such as maps, drawings, diagrams and so on can say a lot about the author and his/her writing manner. Define whether these materials support ideas or not.
• Define whether the book is original Does it give the reader new information? Is it similar to other works in this genre or does the author breaks existing rules in the genre?
• Stick to the review’s structure Opening paragraph of a cheap dissertation literature review includes the main thesis, the author, comparison to other works, and the importance of the work.
• Body paragraphs should contain your impressions. Here you develop your thesis.
main
points
and
• Conclusions sum up everything you’ve written and estimate the whole work. It’s time to give a final judgment about the book.
• Come up with a heading This part of your systematic literature revie w should include bibliographic information: its title, the author, publisher and the year when this work was published as well as pages number.
• Create a catchy introduction You should catch the attention of your readers so they will be engaged in reading your review as well as inform them what your work is going to be about. You can begin with an intriguing statement, joke or impressive historical moment. Keep it concise and to the point.
If you have troubles with composing an eyecatching introduction, leave it and craft later. After you’ll write your main ideas and critique the work, it will be much easier to compose an introduction which will definitely match the body paragraphs of APA lit review .
• Create a summary of the book Write author’s main ideas and themes. It should be brief, informative and clear. Cite and quote where it is appropriate. If have some writing issues, hire literature review writers.
• It’s time to critique the book Critical discussion is probably the heart of any book reviews. Writing book reviews demands your own opinion on whether the author has achieved his/her purpose, how the work differs from others in this genre, define some aspects which were not convincing or weakly developed. Support your points with quotes and passages.
• Finish your journal article review Sum up your critical discussion. Write down book’s strengths and weaknesses. Decide whether you will recommend this book to read or not. Don’t include in this section any new information; if you come up with some brilliant ideas, put them in the body.
• Polish your piece of writing Don’t be afraid if your first draft is not perfect. Keep calm and revise what you’ve written. Ideally, give yourself a few hours or even days before you start revision in order to look at your written piece from a fresh perspective.
Use spell checker, fix grammar, and punctuation mistakes. There is nothing worse, than bad English and poorly written paper. Also, double check citations. Choose one format and stick to it (APA, Chicago, etc).
• Ask somebody else to proofread for you Some people find it difficult to critique their own works so you should consider asking your friends or tutors to read your thesis literature review and give a feedback. A fresh pair of eyes is always a good idea. • More useful information you can find in this Google book.
Still need lit review writing help? Check litreview.net right away!