Professional Book Reviews

Professional book reviews include a class of academic assignments as well as professional literary work that serves as a form of literary criticism meant to highlight the work of a specific author. Literary criticisms on books within academic circles serve the purpose of evaluating students on their ability extract information from books and evaluate the importance of books and the worth of a particular book with regard to certain materials or topics. On the other hand, book reviews conducted for professional purposes are meant to handle criticisms that appraise the quality of writing and the substantiality of the content that is written. In the latter case, the book reviews serve the purpose of proving the importance of a source with regard to the richness of the content. These book reviews also elaborate the kind of material covered within the work as well as giving a critique on how well the material was covered or not covered. Therefore, book reviews could serve both academic and professional evaluation process, where the former evaluation is based on how well students understand the content of a book and how well they can write an appropriate book review. The later serves the purpose of informing the readership or buyers of books on the quality and content of a certain piece of literary work in form of a book. Book reviews or book reviews writing constitutes of some basic features which have to be adhered to when giving critique. On the general side of reviewing the reviewers should observe the protocol of offering constructive criticism which is meant to positively highlight the content of the book. However, this does not mean that a poor quality book should be given a positive rating or critique. It rather means that the offered critique should not be in a negative spirit, but rather a positive spirit that offers constructive criticism on how well the book should have been written in order to meet standards. The basic features that constitute book reviews include the setting, period, plot, main characters, personal experiences, opinions and recommendation. The settings section in book reviews highlights the kind of locale within which the story or content of the book under highlight is captured. This actually the environment within which the story develops. This may not be explicitly offered or portrayed by the author, but it is the duty of the writer to try and find out exactly the settings implied through the narration of the story. The plot section within book reviews highlights the outline of the story event-by-event and this should be done in a sequential manner with the exclusive inclusion of only important events. The period is some kind of timeline establishment within the story. The book reviews period section sets up the in the past, present or future and thus serves to inform the reader the time period within the events took place. The characters sections detail the main characters and how they interact with their fellow characters and events. The other sections that conclude the book reviews are reserved for the critique. In the personal experiences section the book review writer states what s/he felt about the story and this includes emotions and feelings about the characters and events. In the opinion section the reviewer opines on what s/he perceives about the story and finally, the recommendation sections outlines what the reviewers view is about the book with regard to advising other readers to either use it or not.