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    This document provides guidance on how to write an effective book review in 3 sentences or less. It explains that a book review should have an introductory paragraph describing the book's main theme and contribution, a body discussing a few core points and providing evidence, and a conclusion critiquing the book's strengths and weaknesses. The review should focus on giving opinions and reflections rather than only describing contents. An effective review is educational, attractive, and opinionated.

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    Book review

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    How to write a Book or chapter Review

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    This document provides guidance on how to write an effective book review in 3 sentences or less. It explains that a book review should have an introductory paragraph describing the book's main theme and contribution, a body discussing a few core points and providing evidence, and a conclusion critiquing the book's strengths and weaknesses. The review should focus on giving opinions and reflections rather than only describing contents. An effective review is educational, attractive, and opinionated.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    3K views3 pages

    How To Write A Book or Chapter Review

    Uploaded by

    mengistu jilo
    This document provides guidance on how to write an effective book review in 3 sentences or less. It explains that a book review should have an introductory paragraph describing the book's main theme and contribution, a body discussing a few core points and providing evidence, and a conclusion critiquing the book's strengths and weaknesses. The review should focus on giving opinions and reflections rather than only describing contents. An effective review is educational, attractive, and opinionated.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    of 3

    How to write a Book Review

    Prepared by: Mukhtiar Baig, Shaukat Ali Jawaid Edited by: Mesay A.

    Introduction:

    A review is the personal reflection of the reviewer’s opinion about the book (Chapter), in which
    he/she communicates to the readers; such as was the book good and worth reading? Was it
    thought-provoking and informative? To whom (audience) it is recommended?

    There is no hard and fast rule regarding the length of the review. However, a review comprising
    500-1000 words is good enough. It provides sufficient space for a reviewer for presenting
    his/her ideas or comments with considerable supportive examples and arguments’. Mostly,
    journals have a word limit for writing a book review. However, the worth of a review rarely has
    a connection with its length.

    Types of Review:

    There are two approaches to book reviewing such as descriptive and critical.

    Descriptive reviews: In this type, the reviewer gives an objective account of the information
    presented within the book. The reviewer is expected to give a brief description of the book
    (chapter) by stating the purpose of the book (chapter).

    Critical reviews: It may include a descriptive note, but it also appraises the book according to
    the recognized “academic, scholastic and literary” norms.

    Purpose: A chapter review is a snapshot of a newly published book part to prospective readers,
    and it succinctly introduces the book’s content and expresses the reviewer’s opinion about it.
    The literature points out that there are no absolute rules for writing a chapter review; however,
    a broad rule of thumb is that a good chapter review should have three components.

    1|Page
    Features of good Review

    1. An introductory paragraph: It describes the main theme and contribution of the chapter
    (book) in the field. Thus basically it explains what the chapter is about. It also describes the
    pertinent information about the author and what’s his/her standing in the field.

    2. The body of the review: It describes the key points of the chapter. It is the responsibility of a
    reviewer to avoid too much detail and discuss only a few core points, and provide concrete
    evidence for assertions. In this section, a few quotes or phrases can be used from the book to
    elucidate the reviewer’s points.

    3. A conclusion: In this section, the reviewer critiques the book and points out the weaknesses
    and strengths in the use of evidence/s, the kind of provided evidence/s, and the inferences are
    drawn. For concluding the write-up, the reviewer is required to sum up the ideas to provide the
    reader with an outcome regarding the book.

    A good book (chapter) review is considered as a commentary and summary of the book and the
    chapter. Therefore, one should focus on giving his/her opinions and reflections on the book
    instead of providing a detailed description of the contents. An effective review should be
    educational, attractive, and opinionated.

    Parts need to be skimmed by the reviewer

    While reviewing a book, one must look at the following points carefully:

    1. The subject of the book

    2. Quality of the contents

    3. Single author or multi-author book

    4. Chapters or sections

    5. Preface

    6. Foreword and who has written it

    2|Page
    7. References

    8. Index

    9. The International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

    10. Quality of paper and printing

    11. Quality of photographs, illustrations if any

    12. Highlighted important points in various chapters in Box

    While reviewing any book, first of all carefully read its preface, it will give you the objective of
    writing that book and other related information. In the next step, every book written by an
    eminent author is already reviewed by some expert or eminent personality in that particular
    field whom the authors usually invite to write a foreword for that book.

    3|Page

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