What is the Meaning and Format of a Book Review?
Back to: Academic and Professional Writing Unit 3
What is the Meaning and Format of a Book Review?
A book review refers to a critical analysis and evaluation of a book’s meaning, significance, and quality through its thorough description. Book Reviews are often associated with prior and proper research on the concerned topic and they usually range from 500-2000 words. However, the length may be longer or shorter as it depends on several factors such as the general purpose of the book review, length and complexity of the concerned book under review, and whether the review examines two or more books that focus on the same topic.
Format of a Book Review
The format of a book review is as follows:
● Introducing the book
● Outlining its contents
● Highlighting parts of the book by selecting particular chapters or themes
● Offering a detailed evaluation
Book Reviews have two General Approaches
Book reviews have two general approaches which are as follows:
1. Descriptive Review:
It displays the content and structure of a book in an objective manner. It describes essential information about a book’s purpose and authority which is done by determining the perceived aims and purposes of the study. It includes passages quoted from the text highlighting key elements of the work. Furthermore, the reading level and anticipated audience is also indicated.
2. Critical Review:
It depicts and evaluates the book based on the accepted literary and historical standards. Following this, the evaluation is supported with evidence from the text and, in most cases, in contrast to and in comparison with the research of others. R.W. Erwin states, “It should include a statement about what the author has tried to do, evaluates how well you believe the author has succeeded in meeting the objectives of the study, and presents evidence to support this assessment.”
Book reviews can help one to assess the ability of learners to effectively synthesise research so that an informed perspective about the topic being covered can be reached.
