Your English professor has just assigned your class to write an essay about a book. “That seems straightforward enough,” you think to yourself. But the more you ponder it, the more confused you become. Your professor stressed that he wants you to take things a bit deeper with this essay and go beyond just a mere book report. You’ve always known that your paper writing was good, but then a flood of questions overwhelms you.
Where do I begin, and how to start an essay? Are among the first questions you ask yourself. Then, others follow, including what good books to write about, what’s a good format for a book essay, and how I can write a good conclusion for this type of essay.
Don’t worry; I’ve got you covered! Keep reading to learn the answer to these questions and the following points:
- What are the requirements of an essay about a book?
- Developing a good hook for a book essay
- Writing an introduction paragraph for an essay about a book
- How to write the main body paragraphs for your essay
- Developing a good conclusion for a book essay
I’ll also discuss some good topics to consider and some tips that can help you with your writing overall.
Understanding the Essay Requirements
Before we jump into the details of how to write an essay about a book, it’s important to know what it is you’ve been assigned to write. It’s likely that your professor lectured your class about how to write a literary analysis, so you should have a good starting point.
But let’s drill down a bit deeper on what a good book essay entails.
If you’re reading this, then chances are you’re a college student, which means that your professor will expect you to do a little more than just summarize the plot. With that in mind, let’s use a hypothetical example to visualize this process.
Your professor assigned the class to write an essay about George Orwell’s 1945 novel Animal Farm. Other than the book, you’ve been given plenty of leeway. Assuming you’ve read the book, let’s get started.
Identify Key Terms and Concepts
This should be pretty straightforward. As you read the book, jot down notes on your notepad or Word document. Start with the big ideas and then narrow them down as you move forward in the process. Here are some of the ideas from Animal Farm.
- Communism
- Authoritarianism
- Political Corruption
- Early Soviet Union Society
- Geopolitics
There are several more overarching themes in this book, but these should give you a good starting point. Once you’ve considered some of these terms and concepts, you’ll narrow things down and develop a more defined approach to your essay.
There are several approaches you can take to write your book essay. Here are three of the most popular and effective approaches.
- Analyze a Major Theme
- As you identify the key terms and concepts, you’ll also identify the major themes of the book. In Animal Farm, one of the major themes was how the corrupt leaders of Animal Farm used literacy as a weapon to keep the other animals oppressed.
- Analyze Literary Techniques
- This involves focusing on one technique that the author uses and giving it an in-depth critique. Common literary techniques can involve a meta approach, a non-linear chronology, or different uses of dialogue. Animal Farm employs a narrative technique where very little dialogue among the characters is used.
- Examine Symbolism
- Most literary classics are full of symbolism. Characters, events, and even settings in a book often represent greater meaning. In Animal Farm, each of the animals on the farm represented a different person or group of people in the early Soviet Union. For example, Napoleon, the leader, represented Joseph Stalin, while Boxer, the plow horse, represented the laboring masses of the Soviet Union.
Now that you know what a book essay is and some approaches to consider, let’s look at how to start the actual essay.
How to Start an Essay About a Book
As is the case with any type of essay, before you start writing a book essay, you’ll have to do some brainstorming, researching, and organizing. If you do these steps properly, then you’re well on your way to writing a top-notch book essay.
Research and Brainstorming
Once you’ve settled on an approach to your book essay, it’s time to do some additional research and brainstorm your thesis statement. Do some internet searches for other writers who’ve written critical appraisals of your book. This will help you visualize what a book essay should look like and it will also help you narrow down your theme into a thesis statement.
Let’s go back to the symbolism of Animal Farm to create a thesis statement.
The idea that all of the animals on the farm symbolized a specific person or group of people in the Soviet Union is interesting, but we need to narrow that down a bit to make a good book essay. Let’s concentrate on how Boxer the plow horse represented the masses. Here’s what we know about Boxer:
- Boxer was a hard-working plow horse
- Boxer rarely questioned authority
- Boxer is loyal and dependable
With these facts in mind, we can develop our thesis. “The character of Boxer in Animal Farm represented the toiling Soviet masses – loyal and dependable until death.”
The thesis statement forms the core of your essay. With your thesis developed, you can now move on to writing your outline.
Developing Your Outline
With your thesis statement in hand, you’re ready to develop your outline. Think of the outline as the skeleton of your paper, where you can add more “meat” to it as you go. There are different outline formats you can use. I prefer to use a more traditional outline where major points are marked by upper-case Roman numerals. Sub-points are marked by upper-case letters and Arabic numerals. The more detailed sub-points are marked by lower-case letters and lower-case Roman numerals.
It’s important to note that this is a working outline. In fact, all good outlines are working outlines. They are there to give you a roadmap for your essay but can be rearranged and edited accordingly, so never think your outline is set in stone.
How to Write a Hook for an Essay about a Book
Your book essay, and any essay for that matter, should begin with a hook. A hook is simply a captivating sentence that grabs the attention of your readers and makes them want to see what comes next. Let’s take a look at what a not-so-good hook looks like first.
- “Animal Farm is a great book that had a lot to say about communist Russia.”
There are a few problems with this hook. Perhaps the most obvious is that it’s boring and lacks energy. It’s also quite vague and simple.
Now, let’s take a look at a good hook!
- “Corruption, authoritarianism, and a lack of humanity were just some of the themes George Orwell tackled in his book, Animal Farm, which he effectively did by making animals the main characters.”
This hook is much better for a number of reasons. It begins by using captivating, catchy terms while mentioning the book and the author. A good hook also foreshadows the thesis statement. Although a hook is distinct from a thesis statement, it clarifies your paper by connecting it to the thesis.
Now that we have our hook written, let’s finish writing the introduction paragraph.
How to Write an Introduction Paragraph for an Essay About a Book
After the hook, you should write about two to three sentences of general background that segue into your thesis statement. Here’s what two of the sentences could look like for our example.
- “Among the many themes of Animal Farm were several characters, each of which represented a specific person or group of people in the early Soviet Union. A closer look at one of these characters reveals how Orwell believed the vast majority of the Soviet people dealt with what were often extremely harsh conditions.”
After these two sentences, I’ll write the thesis statement I developed earlier. You can then write another sentence after your thesis statement that transitions into the body paragraphs, but that’s optional.
Writing the Body Paragraphs
Your book essay should have two to three body paragraphs, depending on how long the assignment is. For our example, we’ll go with the standard of three paragraphs. The first sentence of every paragraph is your topic sentence. The topic sentence of our example will be the following:
- “Boxer was the most loyal and dependable animal in Animal Farm”
I’ll use a couple of notable examples of Boxer’s loyalty and dependability from the book. However, the most important thing is related to the real-life toiling masses of the Soviet Union. This is where your research beyond the book comes in. Examples of how the Soviet people were dependable and loyal despite their hardships should be related here to prove the point.
The final sentence of the paragraph then segues into the next paragraph.
- “As loyal and dependable as Boxer was, he never expected anything in return.”
The next paragraph will be about how Boxer rarely questioned authority and never asked for anything in return. Let’s look at a good topic sentence for this paragraph.
- “The loyal and dependable Boxer worked hard for Animal Farm, rarely questioning things, even when corruption and authoritarianism were rampant.”
Again, use examples of how Boxer did this from the book, but also compare it with how this was the case in the early Soviet Union. As with the previous paragraph, the final sentence should transition into the next paragraph:
- “Boxer was loyal until his death, but the leaders of Animal Farm did not repay him in kind.”
The topic sentence of the final paragraph should focus on how Boxer was sent to the knacker when he outlived his usefulness and how the pigs of Animal Farm then exploited his life and death.
- “The pigs repaid the ever-loyal Boxer by sending him to the knacker and later hailed him as a hero of Animal Farm, keeping the details of his death secret from the other animals.”
After relating examples from the book and comparing them to how the people of the Soviet were often treated during the Stalin era of the Soviet Union, you can wrap up the main body of the essay and transition into the conclusion.
How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay About a Book
The conclusion is just as important as the introduction, and in many ways, it’s also its mirror image. The first sentence in your conclusion should be a secondary hook that is similar to the hook in the introduction.
- “Talking animals is often a humorous literary device, but in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the animals tell the story of corruption and authoritarianism in the early Soviet Union.”
You then briefly review the main points from your essay in two to three sentences and restate your thesis. Because the conclusion is at the end of the essay, it’s often what many people remember the most. So, make sure your conclusion hits all the major points and leaves the reader with a good impression!
Editing and Proofreading Your Essay
The final step of writing an essay about a book should never be overlooked – editing and proofreading. You may find this tedious and boring, but editing your paper is often the difference between a good paper and a great paper.
I personally like to read through my paper after writing with an eye for typos and grammatical mistakes. Then, I’ll give it to a friend or colleague to read with an emphasis on format and logic. I want my friend to point out specific parts that don’t make sense or can be moved around. When I got the paper back and addressed my friend’s suggestions, I then read through it a final time before submitting it.
Because editing and proofreading are such an important part of the essay writing process, it’s important to give yourself enough time. Begin your research and brainstorming ASAP so that you can spend plenty of time fine-tuning your essay later.
Final Thoughts
Writing an essay about a book can be a frustrating and difficult proposition, yet it can also be quite rewarding and edifying. I enjoy book essays because there are so many different ways to approach them.
You can analyze the major themes, symbolism, or literary techniques of the book you are writing about. There are also numerous other approaches you can use to write a book essay if you use your imagination.
With this article as a guide, you’re well on your way to writing a top-tier essay about a book. Just relax and let your mind look at your book from many different perspectives, and you’ll be well on your way!
