A Book Report vs. a Book Review

The difference between book report and book review is critical, so you have to pay close attention to what you are expected to come up with: if you need to sum up and enumerate, you’re in for a book summary (book report), but if you need to analyze, you want to write a book review.

There is a great deal of confusion when it comes to discussing book reports and book reviews. As a matter of fact, these two terms keep used quite interchangeably, while a deeper dig-in shows some principal differences between the two.

If you submit a book report and you were asked to write a book review, your grade is most likely to go down. The opposite situation, i.e. when you submit a book review instead of a book report, may also entail adverse consequences. Book review writing is believed to require greater intellectual effort than book reports, that’s why your marker will most likely ‘forgive’ you this mistake.

Speaking of differences, first of all, you will have to understand that a book report is simpler (a more primitive if you will) kind of writing, where you have to narrate & re-tell the story.

A book report is practically identical to a book summary and they can be used interchangeably. In contrast, a book review requires you to analyze the book and see beyond the obvious. In it, you will need to examine its contents, understand the plot, the main message of the book, see if the author has managed to convey the message to the reader; you will also have to state strong and weak sides of the book and say whether or not you like it. More differences between the two terms are as follows:

LENGTH. Book report will usually take 200-250 words. Book reviews will range from 200 words if it’s a simple book to 1000+ words if it’s a piece of scholarly literature that needs thorough analysis and evaluation.

ACADEMIC LEVEL. Book report is considered to be a K-12 level assignment. Book review is more of a college-level type of assignment.

STRUCTURE. The structure of two papers resemble one another: first off, you would need to introduce the author, the book, state when and who the book was published by. You would need to mention characters, mention the plot, genre, and major themes.

MESSAGE. If you write a book report, you would need to simply sum up the book plot, characters, state major themes and say a few words about the major characters. If you are writing a book summary, the main idea is to say whether or not you like the book, whether or not you would recommend this book to other readers and why.

HOW TO WRITE A BOOK REPORT

Either of these assignments is generally easy to write, however, each has its own nuances that you need to know. If you have either a book report or a book review to write, feel free to contact us for assistance and we will be happy to help. Our team of professional writers will be glad to help you through book report or book review writing. In the end of our cooperation, you will have learned how to tackle these assignments effectively and ace your assignments.