Guidelines to Writing Great College Book Reports by Custom Papers

The professor wants to know that you have read and understood the book as a whole, and that you are able to take the specific elements of plot and character and weave them together to discover the larger messages.

The structure of the report is similar to other types of essay, in that you should begin with an introductory paragraph or two (depending on the length of the report) which briefly states the name of the text, its author, the book's genre, and what it is about in the broadest terms. This is also the place where you list they key theme or themes of the text, as well as the protagonist and one or two other key characters as well as their relationships to each other and their contributions to the themes you have already mentioned. Unless specifically requested by the professor, a thesis which will lead to a sustained argument is not necessary.

From here, it is important to develop the body of the essay by selecting and discussing key events which contribute to the themes you have stated. For example, a book report on Hamlet stating that it is a play about the difficulty of making tough decisions would describe the most important moments of Hamlet's inability to decide, and quote the lines where he shows how torn he is between different courses of action. The "to be, or not to be" speech would be an automatic inclusion, as would the episode where his father's ghost comes to admonish him for not acting more quickly.

The order of this section should follow the order of the text whenever this is possible. Read through the work and choose episodes that reinforce the themes and show the characters talking or thinking about the important issues the text presents, then present them in order. Make sure to have at least one direct quote from each episode you discuss; these quotes act as "proof" that what you have said about the story is true, and that you have properly understood what is happening. Making these choices and extracting these quotes before you begin writing will allow you to structure your essay before you begin writing it, and your report will be much more coherent and logical as a result. You might even find that your original assumptions are just not supported by the text, and it is best to learn this before you have written your report, rather than later.

Finally, you need to close with a convincing final paragraph which reminds the reader of the main points you have presented, and how these have led you to the conclusions you have reached throughout the paper. Although it is a popular belief that your conclusion should be your introduction written with different words, this is not an effective way to finish. You have to succinctly mention your main sections, and briefly explain how these have showed the themes you have suggested. This is sufficient, but in the best book reports, a closing sentence extending the themes of the story to contemporary life ends the conclusion. Returning to Hamlet, you might end with "Although it is easy to criticize Hamlet for his inaction, any one of us would have a hard time making such a difficult, and life-altering, decision." This shows your professor you have not only understood the work on its own terms, but also put yourself in the protagonist's shoes and considered the issue personally.