by Travis Peterson

One of your most mutual assignments at any seminary is going to exist the sometimes joyful, often tedious, yet always necessary book review. While every seminary volition have different requirements for their volume reviews, well-nigh all fall into a fairly similar mold. How can yous assault this task in such a way as to do the work near faithfully and most efficiently?

Know the Expectations

The first thing that you should do when assigned a book review is understand exactly what your professor expects of you. If he only wants a brief summary to prove that you read the volume, practice information technology. If she wants a cursory summary with a mountain of personal observations, do it. If he wants mainly critique to prove that such a book is not theologically accurate, do your best.

Zippo will frustrate you lot more than writing a nice, solid, five-folio critique of a book simply to find out that your professor only wanted a paragraph or 2 of your thoughts. OK, perhaps you volition be more than frustrated when you write a 2-folio, single-spaced review of a book and then find that your professor wanted a more formal interaction. The point is, do what is expected.

What Goes Into a Book Review?

When I was a student at Southern Seminary in Louisville, near of my book reviews required the following:

  • Brief introduction (No more ½ page ) – This includes both what the book is and who the writer is. Show that you lot know why this particular author might be considered a meaning vocalisation in his or her field of writing.
  • Brief summary (No more than 1 folio) – This is the almost dangerous part of a volume review. Your professor has read the book, and does not want yous to go into chapter-by-chapter detail. Nonetheless, he or she does want to know that you lot can boil the book downward into a unproblematic set of points and demonstrate an agreement of the material.
  • Points of Agreement (one ½ pages) – This should include several of the writer's arguments and points with which yous particularly believe to be strong. Generally a paragraph in this section will incorporate a quotation or 2 followed by biblical or philosophical reasons why you lot believe the bespeak to be stiff.
  • Points of Disagreement (1 ½ pages) – This department is the opposite of the previous section. Be careful not to merely say that yous dislike something without reason. Be careful assuming that everyone knows why a point is bad. Utilise reason and scripture to defend your disagreement with a quote or arrangement of argument.
  • Brief Conclusion (1/2 folio) – This 1 or two paragraph section should tie the review together, and let you a final thought nigh the book. Maybe this would be a good section to say whether or non you would recommend this particular book to someone, or nether what circumstances you believe the volume could be used well.

Some Questions to Ask

Here are a few things you might ask a professor who is assigning y'all book reviews for the commencement fourth dimension (Note that many of the answers to these questions can be establish in a seminary's style guide if ane exists for your school):

  • Is there a standard format y'all wish for our book reviews to follow?
  • Is there a particular length you wish for the review to be?
  • Is it acceptable to write in offset person ("I believe . . .") or must I use a more formal style?
  • Is there a particular style of citation that you wish me to employ for quotations?
  • Whatsoever rules concerning font, margins, spacing, etc?

Tips for the Task

Here are some thoughts that may assist you lot to plan to tackle your book review. Though you tin can write your review in many ways, this is a system that has helped me to become much more efficient:

  • While it may seem terribly unspiritual, you practice not need to totally scour and digest a book in order to be able to give it a fair and authentic review. Many bloggers have shared tips for reading books for content, and I volition not repeat them hither. Withal, you can read a book in many dissimilar ways; and so be wise.
  • When reading your volume for a book review, I advise reading it with two differently colored highlighters, a pen, and a notebook.
  • As you read, write in your notebook a brief summary of each chapter or of each master argument.
  • When a sentence or paragraph in the book strikes yous equally positive, highlight it in one color.
  • When a sentence or paragraph strikes you lot negatively, highlight information technology in a dissimilar colour from the positive points.
  • If a question strikes yous regarding the author'due south content, argument, sources, application of scripture, notation it in your notebook with the relevant page number.
  • In one case y'all have finished the book, skim through the positive highlights and summarize the patterns you encounter of several dissimilar types of positive points. Exercise the same for the negatives. Keep boiling downwardly your observations into coherent thoughts.
  • Use your summaries from the notebook to write your brief summary of the book.
  • Utilize your compiled positive and negative statements to write the principal body of your review.
  • Use the book jacket or "Nearly the writer" section to help you to write your introduction.
  • Use all that y'all have gathered in your review to complete a consistent determination.

Get Used to This

If you lot are at seminary, you will be writing reviews; there's no way effectually it. Then, get used to the idea. Find a system that works for you lot, and refine information technology so that you can do the best work in the least fourth dimension. Who knows, y'all may desire to keep your reviews in order to help others who pick upwards the aforementioned volume in the time to come. Write a review that will satisfy your grade requirements and possibly assist you to remember what y'all recollect of a volume later.

Travis Peterson is a contributing writer for Seminary Survival Guide. He is a pastor in Southern Illinois, a D. Min. candidate in Biblical Counseling at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a blogger.