How to Write a Critical Book Review for University

How to Write a Critical Book Review

By Kevin Nelson/ Writing a critical book review is quite like shooting fish in a barrel although for nearly people it'south the contrary, they have a problem distinguishing a book review from a book written report.

Volume reviews are meant to inform on what the book entails, and your personal opinion on the volume in full general based on the evaluation that y'all've done. Take note that a "disquisitional book review" doesn't necessarily refer to a negative review. Actually, it gives an evaluation that points out both the good and the bad.

Book reviews don't merely give a summary, that wouldn't be described equally being a volume review. They have the "critique" aspect fastened to it. This, therefore, ways that other than the summary, you demand to add together a touch of your opinion, reaction, and response to the book's contents. Not anybody has a knack for writing a critical book review; it requires a lot of time and patience. Take an example of the number books reviewed by the New York Times per week, on average, they receive between 750 and thousand books from a number of publishers. Reading through all those books volition definitely take lots of time. However, this isn't reason enough to push you away if yous have a passion for reading and are capable of writing reviews.

Here'due south a guide to go nigh writing a critical book review:

Reading through the Book

Why Read The Book?

Before making any remarks on any book, you need to thoroughly and critically get through the text. Yes, you lot need to read and reread until you have a thorough understanding of what the writer is trying to communicate. It would be a grievous mistake to brand a review that doesn't tally with information contained in the book.

What Information Volition Yous Be Looking At As You Read?

Before reading the text, listing down the questions that you wait will be answered. Some of the questions would include:

When and why was the book authored?
What data are in the book'south contents?
Who forms the audience?
What is the level of accuracy of the information presented by the author?
How well has the data been backed by evidence (only if evidence has been cited)?
Who is the author, what other works are nether his belt, his background, the qualifications and the affiliations he holds?

Take Notes

You'll need to take notes while reading the book for review purposes

You'll need to have notes equally yous read, paying close attention to the preface, introduction, summaries, and abstracts. They are some of the areas that will give yous insight into what the writer was trying to accomplish writing the book.

What Adjacent After Reading?

The notes you wrote during your read come in handy at this stage. They brand it possible for you lot to make an assay and therefore, you lot can proceed to write your review. Your notes can also assistance you with assessing the readability of the book. Non very many people accept grasped readability of a text, accessing sites offering essay writing services can help with agreement the concept.

Structuring Your Review

Critical book reviews, whether short or long all take a like format. It will exist divided into 3 sections containing an introduction, torso, and conclusion. The torso will comprise the summary and critique. Short book reviews are oft a page long and are betwixt 100-500 words while long reviews are often 4 pages with a maximum of around 1500 words.

Before proceeding to write the review, make sure that you've included:

The championship of the book
The author
Where the book was published
The date that detail edition was published
The total number of book pages

The Introduction

The introduction, in this case, is an equivalent of a thesis argument. What this only means is that the introduction volition give a summary while at the same time show readers your overall judgment on the volume. It's oftentimes a paragraph for brusk texts such as journal articles, or two, and some cases 3 paragraphs for long book reviews. Some of the information that will be included in this paragraph volition include:

A brief explanation of the text topic
Purpose of the text and its significance
A summary of your key findings or arguments

While terminal the introduction, yous can include a statement on your overall view, impression or evaluation of the book. Often, a blend of positive and negative, though in some instances they are 1 sided, leaning to either side. Some other aspect that can be included is a brief remark on the author's other works and how they relate to the text nether review or other texts within the aforementioned niche.

The Body

The trunk contains both the summary of the text and critique.

Summary

Information technology's not nigh just making a summary of the main points. Yous'll be required to explain the text in detail using a couple of examples and in your own wordings. Oft, the summary is limited to a 1/3 of the body. It's also a chance to highlight how the text has been organized, and prove your readers what the author of the book intended as revealed throughout the text.

The Critique

Thoroughly critique the book before making your opinion known

This is the chief section of the disquisitional volume review. Information technology's in this section that yous'll get to give an evaluation to the strengths and weaknesses of the text, and its contribution. Yous'll need to place the most important to the less important points of your review, highlighting them in that social club. Y'all can include proposed recommendations, and whatsoever other conclusions you may have arrived at with regards to the text.

These are the primary points to include in the body:

The master ideas, and detail on authors intentions
Proof that supports your critical book review
Strengths and weaknesses evaluation of the text

A skillful review makes reference to other manufactures to support arguments made.

The Conclusion

Be objective in your review and have fun at the same fourth dimension

A rather cursory paragraph that basically restates your overall judgment on the text, any recommendations that you may have and farther explanations on how yous arrived at your review. You need to make a sound and fair review, achievable through clearly providing backing to the review conclusion reached at.

Fairness is a crucial attribute, as in most cases that review is what stands between a book's success and failure. It, therefore, wouldn't be prudent to mislead your readers with your reviews. Nevertheless, a negative review may be a adept source of publicity for a bottom known writer. For a renowned author, it will practise the opposite.

A skillful review with the New York Times Book review gives authors hope for publication of their books, although virtually of the books published are for white males. This was in 2011/2012 when the population of the whites was at 72%of the total population.

Evaluation Language

To satisfactorily write a proficient review that will be accustomed and understood, you'll have to use a detail language. Basically, wait at the pick of words you use to give your analysis.

Example:

"This argument is not entirely convincing, as…furthermore it rationalizes the…"

" The showtime of…provides an informative overview into…" and so on

Conclusion

Writing a critical book review isn't rocket science. Information technology'due south quite easy as shown in a higher place. Notwithstanding, one needs to be objective and make a fair judgment when presented with a book for a critical review. It takes patience to read and re-read text to be able to thoroughly grasp the bulletin being passed across past an author, but also a fun and piece of cake procedure once you master the skill.

Kevin is a professional educator and a individual tutor with over eight years of experience. He is also a content writer for various blogs virtually college teaching, amusement, social media & blogging. During his off time, Kevin enjoys traveling and cooking. Feel free to connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & Google+.

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Source: https://www.novelpublicity.com/2017/09/how-to-write-a-critical-book-review/

How to Write a Critical Book Review for University