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Writing a book report may not seem fun at first, but it gives you a great chance to really understand a work and its author. Unlike a book review, a book report requires that you give a straightforward summary of the text. Your first step is to pick up the book and start reading. Take detailed notes as you go along. These will help you to build a solid outline, which will make the writing process much easier.
Finishing Up Your Report:
- Write a concise conclusion. Your concluding paragraph is where you pull everything together for your reader. Include a few quick sentences summarizing the entire book. You can also make a final statement about whether you’d suggest the book to other readers and why.
- Some teachers require, or strongly suggest, that you include the author’s name and title in your concluding paragraph.
- Don’t introduce any new thoughts in this final paragraph. Save the space for your recap.
- Proofread your paper. Go through a re-read your paper two times, at least. The first time concentrate on making sure that the structure makes sense and that each paragraph is clear. The second time look for small errors and typos, such as missing commas or quotation marks. It can also help to read your paper aloud to check for awkward phrasing.
- Before you submit your paper, make sure that you’ve spelled the author’s name and any character names correctly.
- Don’t trust your computer’s spell check to catch any errors for you.
- Ask someone else to read it. Go to a family member, friend, or classmate and ask if they’ll read through your report. Tell them that you’d really appreciate if they jotted down comments or corrections on the page margins. You could also talk with them afterwards to get any suggestions.
- For example, you might say, “It would be great if you could go over my report and make sure that it reads smoothly.”
- Polish your final report. Once you’ve made all of the corrections, print out a clean version of your report. Read through it slowly and carefully. Look for any typos or minor errors. Compare your report to the guide sheet to make sure that you’ve followed all of your teacher’s directions.
- For example, double-check that you are using the correct font, font size, and margins.
Sample Book Report and Summaries:
Sample Book Report
Sample Summary Plot of Macbeth
Sample Summary Plot of My Sister’s Keeper
Sample Summary Plot of The Lottery Rose