How to Write a Book Report in Chicago Style
Book reports are assigned to help students examine literature from an objective point of view, according to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. Reports assigned to grade-school students focus on summarizing what happens in the book rather than reviewing the writing itself. Writing a book report using the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) requires blending the basic tenets of book reports with the Chicago citation guidelines.
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Instructions
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Write down the following basic information: book title, author, name of publisher, year published and the total number of pages.
Next, write an outline of the main plot, including major themes that emerge in the story. According to Purdue's OWL, you should identify characters, main ideas and memorable quotes. Make a note of the genre and whether it's fiction or nonfiction.
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Prepare the list of research citations you will use in the book report. If your teacher asks you to include Chicago style notes and a bibliography, you will include references in text. You will include a separate Reference page at the end of the document listing book report references alphabetically by author.
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Begin your report. Declare the name of the book, the author and the genre in the first paragraph. Then summarize the plot. The summary will be a largest part of your report. A book report is usually 250 to 500 words, and most of that is the summary.
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Discuss in the narrative what you liked and didn't about the book, the OWL advises. This is your chance to give your opinion.
Include any big ideas that constellate to form the plot. Using the Chicago note-bibliography system, note each time you use a source. Insert the author's name and the year of the article in parentheses after a sentence that refers to the sourced material.
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Discuss whether the book is set today or during another historical or political period, and if it has a certain moral point of view. Give your opinion about how you would have written it differently.
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Conclude with a paragraph about whether or not you would recommend the book to others, and why or why not.
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Prepare a separate References or Bibliography section that provides full citations of all the in text references. The CMS citation style is as follows:
Last name, First name. Name of Book (in italics) or Article (in quotations). Name of Journal (italics) or publisher, volume (if needed), page numbers. Year. Retrieved from website here, date here
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Proof your book report carefully before turning it in. Check that the names of the characters and places are spelled accurately and that your summary and ideas make sense and are logically presented.
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References
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