Johnson County Community College
Book Report/Review
The book report is a longer more involved writing about a book that has been read. It is
not just a summary. The major purpose of a book report/review for most academic
assignments is to report on the nature and quality of the content. You may include (in
fact you should) feelings and opinions. You do express your reaction to the book; you
can make judgments. The report is written from your point of view. A response to any
reading will be based on the reader’s experience, knowledge, and interpretation. The
response may be an evaluation of form and/or content. It may be a personal application
of the ideas to one’s life. It may be an analysis of the possible effects that the article
might have on readers within and outside of the field. It is important to know very
clearly who the audience is for your book review and what your purpose is in writing
for that audience.
Some questions to ask yourself regarding audience:
Who is my reader?
How much, in anything, does the reader already know about the book, or the
topic the book deals with?
Since I cannot tell everything about the book , what are the key ideas I want to
get across?
Do I want my reader to be persuaded that the book has some major strengths or
weaknesses?
Do I want my reader to understand better some aspects of the book—its
structure, its approach to the problem, its underlying assumptions?
Once your audience and purpose are clear, the list of questions below will help you
analyze your book. A good review usually includes a short summary and focuses on
one of these questions or a coherent group of them. Make sure that you support all
points with concrete examples from the book, and follow the basic rules of writing.
1. Did you understand the material easily?
Did the author write clearly?
2. Did the writing seem to simplified?
Did you feel like the author was writing on a level suitable for the intended
audience?