10 Steps to Writing a Succesful Book Report

10 Steps to Writing a Succesful Book Report A book report should contain the basic elements, but a good book report will address a specific question or point of view and back up this topic with specific examples, in the form of symbols and themes. These steps will help you identify and incorporate those important elements in a process that takes three to four days. How To Write a Book Report Have an objective in mind, if possible. Your objective is the main point you want to argue or the question you plan to answer. Sometimes your teacher will offer a question for you to answer as part of your assignment, which makes this step easy. If you have to come up with your own focal point for your paper, you may have to wait and develop the objective while reading and reflecting on the book.Keep supplies on hand when you read. This is very important. Keep sticky-note flags, pen, and paper nearby as you read. Dont try to take mental notes. It just doesnt work.Read the book. As you read, keep an eye out for clues that the author has provided in the form of symbolism. These will indicate some important point that supports the overall theme. For instance, a spot of blood on the floor, a quick glance, a nervous habit, an impulsive actionthese are worth noting.Use your sticky flags to mark pages. When you run into any clues, mark the page by placing the sticky note at the beginning of the relevant line. Mark everything that piques your interest, even if you dont understand their relevance. Note possible themes or patterns that emerge. As you read and record emotional flags or signs, you will begin to see a point or a pattern. On a notepad, write down possible themes or issues. If your assignment is to answer a question, you will record how symbols address that question.Label your sticky flags. If you see a symbol repeated several times, you should indicate this somehow on the sticky flags, for easy reference later. For instance, if blood shows up in several scenes, write a b on the relevant flags for blood. This may become your major book theme, so youll want to navigate between the relevant pages easily.Develop a rough outline. By the time you finish reading the book, you will have recorded several possible themes or approaches to your objective. Review your notes and try to determine which view or claim you can back up with good examples (symbols). You may need to play with a few sample outlines to pick the best approach.Develop paragraph ideas. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence and a sentence that transitions to the next paragraph. Try writing these first, then filling out the paragraphs with your examples (symbols). Dont forget to include the basics for every book report in your first paragraph or two. Review, re-arrange, repeat. At first, your paragraphs are going to look like ugly ducklings. They will be clunky, awkward, and unattractive in their early stages. Read them over, re-arrange and replace sentences that dont quite fit. Then review and repeat until the paragraphs flow.Re-visit your introductory paragraph. The introductory paragraph will make the critical first impression of your paper. It should be great. Be sure it is well-written, interesting, and it contains a strong thesis sentence. Tips The objective: Sometimes it is possible to have a clear objective in mind before you start. Sometimes, it is not. If you have to come up with your own thesis, dont stress about a clear objective in the beginning. It will come later. Recording emotional flags: Emotional flags are merely points in the book that bring about emotion. Sometimes, the smaller the better. For example, for an assignment for The Red Badge of Courage, the teacher might ask students to address whether they believe Henry, the main character, is a hero. In this book, Henry sees lots of blood (emotional symbol) and death (emotional symbol) and this causes him to run away from the battle at first (emotional response). He is ashamed (emotion). Book report basics: In your first paragraph or two, you should include the book setting, time period, characters, and your thesis statement (objective). Re-visiting the introductory paragraph: The introductory paragraph should be the last paragraph you complete. It should be mistake-free and interesting. It should also contain a clear thesis. Dont write a thesis early on in the process and forget about it. Your point of view or argument may change completely as you re-arrange your paragraph sentences. Always check your thesis sentence last.

The Role of Women in ‘The Great Gatsby’

The Role of Women in ‘The Great Gatsby’ Key Question What is the role of women in The Great Gatsby? Below, we’ll review the role of women in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and introduce three of the novel’s main female characters: Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle. Historical Context The Great Gatsby is filled with characters who appear to be larger-than-life, living the American Dream in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. The 1920s was also a period of increased freedom for women, as young women of this generation distanced themselves from more traditional values. However, in the novel, we don’t hear from the female characters themselves- instead, we primarily learn about the women from how they are described by the two main male characters, Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway. Read on to learn about the main female characters in The Great Gatsby.   Daisy Buchanan The female character we usually think of in The Great Gatsby is Daisy. Daisy, Nick’s cousin, lives in affluent East Egg with her husband, Tom, and their young daughter. Daisy is mentioned by Nick here: Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and Id known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago. Daisy appears almost removed, as an after-thought, of an importance only as the wife to Tom. Later, we learn that Daisy was previously in a romantic relationship with Jay Gatsby, and that many of Gatsby’s actions have been designed as a strategy to win over Daisy. In the novel, the male characters find Daisy’s voice to be one of her most remarkable and notable features. According to Nick: I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered Listen, a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour. As the novel progresses we learn that Daisy is the reason that Jay Gatsby has built up his opulent, lavish lifestyle. Shes the reason, the hope-for-a-future that makes him dare to dream, and even dare to reinvent himself (from the small-town farm boy to the successful Jay Gatsby). Jordan Baker Jordan Baker is a close friend of Daisy from childhood. We learn that Jordan is a relatively well-known golfer, as Nick recalls having seen her picture and having heard of her before meeting her: â€Å"I knew now why her face was familiar- its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach. I had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago.† Jordan and Nick meet at a dinner at the Buchanans’ house. When the two meet, Daisy speaks of setting up a relationship between the two of them, and later they do indeed begin dating. Myrtle Wilson Myrtle Wilson is Tom Buchanan’s mistress, who Nick describes as vibrant and charismatic. When Nick first meets her, he describes her as follows: â€Å"Her face†¦ contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering.† Myrtle is married to George Wilson, who runs an auto shop in a working-class area outside of New York City. Narration in The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is told from the perspective of Nick, whom many scholars have considered to be an unreliable narrator. In other words, Nick’s way of reporting on people and events in the novel may be biased, and an â€Å"objective† reporting of what really happened in the novel (or an objective description of the female characters in the novel) could potentially look different from how Nick has described the situation. Study Guide For more resources on The Great Gatsby, review our study guide below: The Great Gatsby OverviewReview: The Great GatsbyThemes in The Great GatsbyFamous Quotes from The Great GatsbyQuestions for Study and DiscussionKey Terms and Vocabulary