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A book report presents the content and structure of a book as objectively as possible, without comparison. It provides not only a summary of content but also an analysis of structure. The purpose of the report is to give enough information about a book to help decide whether it will be of use or interest to the reader.

Any book report can include three items: summary of the ideas or plot, analysis of the book in the light of your other knowledge about its subject, and your subjective response to the work. The following is the organization of the three parts:

1. Show that you understand the theme of the book. This task may require summarizing, but keep it to a minimum; it's unimpressive to anyone who's read the book and boring to anyone who hasn't. Since any good book has at least one controlling idea, you need to concentrate on summing up the main ideas that the writer conveys.

2. Show how the writer conveys the theme or produces the effects in the book. For internal evidence, you can point to the writer's style, characterization, plot structure, imagery, or other elements. Ideally, all these elements should support the idea of the work. Choose one or more elements to review, depending on the projected length of your paper.

3. Give your personal response. This response could be your evaluation of the book, whether the ideas are valid and well-supported, whether the plot is believable, whether the characters are sufficiently motivated and so on. Such a discussion could also lead to your emotional response to the book: how fully involved you were, whether you found it depressing or exhilaratin, boring or humorous, valuable or a waste of time.

Finally, please note that reports are concerned mainly with the one book presented, relying upon only a few standard reference works for brief and relevant comments on the author and on any special circumstances about the writing of the book. Book reports are not research papers. The research paper is based on material from as many sources as are needed to back up its topic.