How to Write an Essay about a Book?
When you are at high school or college and attend English literature classes, writing book essay becomes a daily routine. Maybe not for everyone, but still, if you stop being afraid and get used to it, your results will become much better.
You may be surprised, but essay writing has a lot in common with math. In particular, you have a formula and substitute numbers, or in our case, sentences. Essay is the same formula filled with ideas and a little bit of creativity. The more you practice in it, the quicker you apply it and produce a worthy product.
What should you start with?
This point is easy to predict. You need to understand what you have read. We don’t mean only the plot; it’s something more profound. At high school, college, or university, you have enough experience to reflect and analyze. But, of course, it’s better to start with simple things, for example, themes (big ideas that correlate with real life) and the author’s skill as a writer (what techniques are applied to achieve a specific goal).
A good start point is a theme statement – one sentence that covers a critical point the author wants to share with readers in the story. It may be something about life, relationships, the world, and so on. If you can formulate this statement, you will be able to the next stage.
Now you have to dig deeper and ask questions. Write down every idea that comes into your mind. Later, it will come in handy. You should look at the book as a means of conveying broad themes and concepts such as love, power, death, youth, peace, and war. Then you decide what is in the foreground and find out your theme subject. Now you are so close to your thesis statement
Think well about what causes and effects of the theme subject are. Almost always, the author aims to teach his or her audience and uses the theme subject for that. Altogether, it combines the universal idea of the book. And your instructor expects that you express in a thesis statement.
Create Your Essay about a Book Easily
If you look thought any book essay example, you will see that it consists of a traditional three-part structure – introduction, body, and conclusion. One of the crucial parts of the writing process – the thesis statement – you have already done, so let’s continue.
While asking and answering questions on the plot and theme, we gave you the advice to make notes. So it’s high time to work with them. You are lucky if you have listened to us. Look at the list of ideas and choose several ones which, in your opinion, are the brightest.
How to write an essay about a book?
- Grab readers’ attention in the introduction.Except for the thesis statement, you need to add something “tasty” to the introduction to make readers swallow the whole essay. What might it be? There are three possible options – a question, maybe even rhetorical, a recognizable quote, or a joke. You have to be pretty clear with your position to tune in and avoid misunderstandings.
- Create body paragraphs.Now you deal with the most significant part of your paper. To make the essay work, you need to run it with compelling and reliable arguments. Don’t complicate writing; present one point in one paragraph. You should start with a topic sentence, then provide explanations, and, of course, support with evidence. Don’t forget to share your feelings on the book, as you will be closer to the reader who empathizes to you. It’s also possible to share some negative experience and weak points as well as something positive and strong.
- Hit with a strong conclusion. People pay the most significant attention to the beginning and the end, that’s the fact approved by psychologists, so use it. It’s your last opportunity to affect the reader and persuade him or her. Restate your thesis and key arguments, in this way, you emphasize the significance of the essay.
