Custom Book Reports

Often new ideas come to mind as they write, and these are added to the ideas already in the outline. After writing several sentences or paragraphs, writers generally stop to read over their material. Quite frequently they see better ways to express ideas, so they scratch out phrases or sentences and rewrite them. Gradually book report writers work through all the ideas in the outline until the paper is completed.But experienced writers know they are still not done. This is just the first draft. Writers have found that when they read a paper that they have written just once, they almost always discover ways to revise and improve it. Of course spelling and grammar errors are corrected. But the most important reason for revising is to express meaning more clearly. A book report writer may discover that his or her meaning is vague at certain points, or that he or she has not fully explained relationships between ideas. Often such lack of clarity is seen only after a book report has been completed, and the writer reads it from start to finish with a fresh eye. A second purpose for revising is to improve word choice. Frequently, in reading through a completed paper, the writer thinks of better words to use.

The writer might change "very large" to "gigantic" or "umpire in the game of baseball" to "baseball umpire." He or she looks for places where more powerful words or compact phrases can be used.A third purpose for revising is to improve sentence structure. A writer might find that he or she has written one short sentence after another, with no long sentences to change the pace. Or the writer might find he or she has started five sentences in a row with "The . . . ," giving an immature, boring quality to the writing. Such problems are corrected by rewriting several sentences so they don't all start the same way or have the same length.A fourth purpose for revising is that as a writer reads through the first draft, he or she often thinks of new ideas or illustrations to enrich the paper.

Many writers report that their book reports continue to improve as they reread and revise them three and even four times. Revising is an important part of writing. With your own writing it is to your advantage to never submit a paper to a teacher or boss without first reading it through, correcting spelling or grammar errors, and revising wherever necessary.In summary, writing a paper generally involves these stages:

1. Thinking of ideas: talking to yourself about the topic as if you were explaining it to someone else; perhaps doing research in encyclopedias, etc; perhaps brainstorming to get many ideas quickly.

2. Organizing ideas: making an outline for a book report; thinking of sentences to introduce and express ideas.

3. Writing a first draft.

4. Revising: correcting spelling and grammar errors; expressing ideas more clearly; using more powerful language; improving sentences; adding ideas.

5. Revising again - preferably after not reading the paper for at least a day: fresh ideas come to mind for explaining and expressing thoughts; awkward or unclear sections may only be recognized after a time lapse.