In colleges and universities, professors often require students to write book reviews. A book review is a type of assignment that analyzes a chosen book. A book review describes the book and provides its analysis and evaluation. In a book review, students can analyze one of several books. It is a crucial assignment to develop analytical skills and evaluate scholarly works. The task also allows understanding students’ knowledge of the topic.
There are two main kinds of book reviews. They include a descriptive review and a critical review. The descriptive review mainly focuses on the information provided in the book. It also covers the structure and idea of the literature work. It highlights the main elements of the book. It also shows the ability of a student to understand the written material. The critical review mainly includes analysis and creative ideas from a student. Students should evaluate the book using the common criteria in the crucial review. This assignment also compares the book with other books of the same style.
Benefits of Writing a Book Review
A book review is not only an assignment for a mark in college or university. It also has a lot of benefits for students. So how can writing a book review to be helpful?
- The development of a quick understanding of content
The ability to grasp the primary sense of text from small pieces is crucial to life. It is helpful at work because it provides a fast understanding of the tasks. A person can immediately look through the task and think up a solution. Students do not focus on a certain chapter when writing a book review. Instead, they read the whole book and differentiate the most useful parts. It also lets them remember great amounts of information and analyze them. Finally, students provide the most essential facts in the book and conclude.
- Reading new books
You may not always know the book you should write a review on. In such a case, you will need to read it first. That is why writing reviews allow students to discover new literature. They become more educated and knowledgeable. At the same time, while writing a review, you only describe the plot. You analyze the book using different criteria and points of you. For this reason, you understand the main message of the book better. Writing a review also allows examining the background of writing the book.
- The reason to do research
Many students may be interested in papers analyzing their favorite books. They provide interesting facts about the literature and its history. Yet, you need to place the right questions to find out the necessary facts. You get these questions in the professor’s instructions for the book review. An assignment from your professor motivates you to start reading books. It is necessary to understand the history of the book and the author’s biography. You also get a deep understanding of the philological features of the book. Finally, you get an insight into the genre, and the time it was written.
- The development of critical thinking is students
When analyzing literature, you do not only present the general information. You compare the genre with other genres and books. This means that you consider both positive and negative characteristics of the book. You start understanding whether a certain literature period was good or not. You see the influence of that period and the book on people. This develops critical thinking and the ability to analyze. Such an analysis also lets students understand which genres and literature they like. So, this expands their scope.
- Good impact on other students
Other students should read most book reviews. In some cases, peers evaluate the papers. Professors then decide on the mark depending on this peer evaluation. When students read the book reviews of each other, they get interested in books. They see the book with their peers’ eyes. So, they get the impression close to their mind. After they finish reading book reviews, other students start reading the books.
Why Should Students Write Book Reviews?
There are several reasons to start writing a book review. First, you may want to share your reading experience with other people. You may like an unknown book and want to make it more popular. A contrary reason to that is a negative reading experience. If a book is extremely bad, you can write a review as a negative comment. So, other people will not read the book in vain. You can also be interested in a certain author’s works. Another option is to write a review to practice your writing skills. It is also great for philology students.