Of all formal writings, the hardest one is, perhaps, book report writing. Why? Well, maybe because the writer or the reviewer is tasked with providing the gist of a whole book, in extracting only the good and the bad points about it and crafting his expert opinion about the matter.

Writing a book report is a staple in every high school and college writing class. The reason is because it is a highly effective form of training to make students become critical in whatever type of literature they are reading and in properly putting into writing all of their views and opinions about the articles they have read. Such training can also be accomplished in writing an article review, article critique and argumentative essays.

So how to get started in writing a good book report? Needless to say, you must first read the book from cover to cover. But before he even open the book, it can be quite helpful if the student would first learn more about the author. By reading the background of the author, the student can be well prepared in making the book report because he is already aware of the circumstances or the reasons on why the author wrote the book in the first place.

While reading the book, the student must carefully take down notes of the important things that he will notice while reading it. With the help of his notes, he can better remember the things about the book that needs further analysis.

In writing the book report, the student must not put into the report everything that he had written in his notes. He must only choose the points worth discussing about that have much bigger impact on the overall quality of the book.