How To Write A Book Report for College Level

A book report is generally an academic analysis of all the important aspects of a book. Not to be confused with writing a book review, it is a critique of the literature to aid in deciding if a book is worth the time. Generally book reports are written for fictional material. They will analyze everything from the storyline to the chronology of the chapters.

Analysis of the author

It is said, “Understand the man before you try and understand the work”. So some research needs to be done to understand the writer’s signature. Every writer has a specific methodology of writing and understanding that in their previous work (if available) can give you valuable insight while analyzing the book. What can further aid your book report is researching the author’s life. There are times the origins of a person heavily influences their work.

The basics book report writing

Before in the in depth analysis some superficial data needs to be quoted as well. This includes:
1. The name of the title and name of the author
2. Name of the publisher
3. Number of chapters and pages
4. Any outright special features

Do not speed through the book

While preparing for your book review do not read the book quickly and then take all your notes. In a book report character analysis is very important. So after the end of each chapter make your notes regarding it. If possible record your thoughts on a voice recorder while reading the chapter.

Break down the book into three parts

After taking notes with regards to each chapter, analyze the book on a macro scale. Basically break down your assessment into three sections:
1. The starting act. These are usually when the majority of the important characters are being introduced
2. Climax. When the conflict is introduced and reaches its pinnacle
3. Conclusion. The conflict is resolved
Interpreting the book on this scale allows you to observe the changes in themes, development of the characters and any significant changes in tone with regards to the syntax. You could analyze chapter by chapter but, significant changes do not always occur after each chapter. Doing this way is not only arduous but, can become very confusing. This is because then you will force yourself to search for details in every chapter that are not there. You can further disseminate the three main sections if you feel the need to add more specific details for your book report. But to maintain order in your work stick to the macro changes in the book. Use them as a template for your work.

Analysis of the story

This is the most detailed part of any book report. Under this heading comes a lot of content. You should try and cover at least the following:
1. How does the story develop? Does it follow a linear timeline?
2. Symbolism in certain aspects of the story. What bearing does it have on the story? Is the author trying to convey a different message through symbolism? Maybe a political opinion is being conveyed. Try and convey that
Answer all these questions all the while sticking to the template (the three sections). Ensure that you include this analysis before moving onto the character assessment. Make sure that you analyze the story independent of the characters.

The characters

When taking down notes for the book report ensure that you leave a separate section out for the characters. The story revolves around them. Any significant developments in their personality usually coincide with important events in the book. To analyze the characters consider the following:
1. What are their motivations?
2. How do they react to the different situations?
3. Do the above two points in the character change as the story develops?
4. Relationship with other characters in the story and how they interact with each other.
5. What role do they have in the story?
a. How does the author begin their role?
b. Equally important is to what end does their role last?
Answering these questions should help form a comprehensive layout of each character. Remember to assess the character’s personality with respect to the three main sections stated in the subheading above. This will greatly help you to maintain focus on the characters’ development in line with the story.

Cast and Allegory

This is where you analyze both the character and the story together for your book report. One of the few questions that you may ask is:
1. How does each of the characters affect the story?
2. How does the story affect all the characters?
3. Is the cast the more important part of the book or the allegory?
During this section ensure that whichever subheadings you are assessing content, it should have an equal weight with regards to both cast and allegory. Do not try and make unsubstantiated connections.

Concluding your book report

In this section analyze the analysis of the book done by you. Write down how you assessed each of the sections. Consider the following questions
1. What aspects did you consider when analyzing the syntax of the book? Why were these points of interest?
2. How was the assessment of the allegory done?
3. Why were the characters analyzed by your preferred method? Was this methodology comprehensive enough?
4. Any discrepancies found in the book? Remember there are bound to be some. Write them down as long as you can prove your point
Whenever a book report is written one thing to remember is that no analysis is wrong. No assessment too far-fetched. As long as you can provide reasonable evidence to support your claims, they are correct. Search for several sources in the book to support your claims. Avoid basing your assessments on a single source; this makes the book report look unprofessional and gives the appearance of stretching your claims for the sake of adding more unnecessary content.
Lastly after you finish take some time off before you review your work. This helps you to assess the book report from a fresh perspective. Furthermore you will find errors which you would not have been able to if you reviewed immediately after finishing. Because you would have tunnel vision with regards to your perspective.