How to Review

The New Zealand Book Council has received requests to include a How to Write a Book Review Page on our website. These requests have come primarily from schools and teachers and we recognize the need for constructive models.

In response to these requests we’ve combed the internet for interesting pages that attempt to outline good practice. These pages come from libraries, universities and writing programmes and are intended for students at both secondary level and at university. The variety and length of these various pages illustrate the complicated issues that surround the practice of reviewing. We hope these pages will give you some sense of the pitfalls and possibilities of book reviewing.

This list is not comprehensive, but does cover the essentials of reviewing.

Dalhousie Universities Library's How To Page includes Basic Requirements, Minimum Essentials, Preliminary Mechanical Steps, Review Outline, The Draft, and Steps in Revising. The page also includes considerations when reviewing by genre; including fiction, biography, history and poetry.

http://www.library.dal.ca/how/bookrev.htm

The Staffer Library Reference page provides an outline of the process including Reading the Text, Preparing an Outline, Writing the Draft and Revising. The page also includes a usful bibliography.

http://library.queensu.ca/inforef/bookreview/write_review.htm

Indiana's Writers' Resources Book Review Page aims to outline the stages from reading the book to reviewing the book. The page includes a sample review and advice for polishing the review.

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/bookreview.html

The University of Alberta offer A Concise Guide to Writing a Critical Book Review. Includes suggested steps, stratagies to get started, revision and documentation. The page includes a useful bioliography.

http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/bookreview/index.cfm

The Univeristy of Toronto's page offers concise guidelines for the book review or article critique. The site also includes links to well-known book review pages.

http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/bkrev.html

The Prewriting Questions for Book, Movie, or Play Reviews Page is intended to the give the writer ideas and to focus their thinking about a particular book, movie or play.

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/bookrevpre.html