Essays on Books

Essays about Books

Read them and weep

 

Writing an essay on a book you've read can be very easy, or the worst time of your school career and it all depends on whether you have actually THOROUGHLY read the book and if you liked it or not. I hate writing about a book that I disliked, it made the whole essay writing that much harder. But here are some tips to help you along your path to A+.

 

 

1. Step One: READ THE DANG BOOK!!!
1. Simple enough. Read it, actually pay attention to it. Take notes and sticky tabs to mark important passages along the way.
2. Step Two: Use the notes you should have been taking while reading the book and make a skeleton of an outline with them.
1. Your essay needs to flow with the plot of the story.
2. Don't hop around from passage to passage. Unless you are giving your opinion on the book and then by all means.
3. Step Three: Add quotes
1. Using you outline, find quotes for each paragraph you plan to write. Don't overfill the essay with quotes because the teacher will not like it.
2. Don't give a summary of the book- unless that's the assignment.
4. Step Four: Get it over with
1. Procrastination= a poor grade. DONT DO IT.
2. If you wait till the last minute to write the paper, I guarantee you it will not be as good as a paper done ahead of time.
5. Step five: Cheat a little bit
1. If you read an especially hard book, looking it up on Sparknotes is not a total crime, just do it only for clarification and do NOT use any of the information as a source. 
6. Step 6: If worse comes to worse, ask for help. 
1. Don't feel bad for asking the professor for help. In fact, they will be more than happy to. They don't want to see their students fail so they will help you as much as they can. But come prepared with actual questions to ask. It's rude to have them search for the errors on your paper, so come prepared.
7. Step 7: Relax. Breath. You can do this.
1. Writers block is the enemy, so don't let it stop you from powering through this assignment. You can do it! If you get stuck, see if your classmates can help you get some inspiration. Heck, even go to sparknotes for inspiration too, but don't quote them. Ever. :)