Writing Your Book Review The Intro Good Intros

Writing Your Book Review The Intro

Good Intros: l l l Have the halo effect Make sense Capture your reader’s attention Specific to the Book Review: Show your voice and set the tone for the essay. Gives a hint where your review will go--does not have to give it all away but gives some indication where you’re taking me.

Not So Great Intros l l l Have the shadow effect—if you’re going to edit one sentence, make it the first one! Are dry, pedestrian, mechanical, just plain boring Do not make sense, either all or in part. Leave me with no indication of the direction we’re going Summarize the book and stop there. Start with any version of, “In this essay I’m going to write about”.

Things I should know after reading your intro: l The Title and Author of the book your read. – FYI: Titles are always Underlined or Italicized: – Title Of The Book or Title Of The Book l Whether this review will be primarily positive or negative in tone l What genre you read (short stories or poetry or for advanced novel)

Model Essay l We’re going to look at the opening of a student essay’s intro. Think about the following: -What did this student do well? – What could have improved?

What’s Wrong With This Picture? Upon reading Gary Soto’s abstractly designed collection, One Kind of Faith, I realized that there really is something to be said for personal taste. For instance, a Gerald Stern--quoted on the book’s backside--found this work to be absolutely delightful. I, however, did not. That’s personal taste for you. Where others see a masterpiece or even a magnum opus, all I see is a rather unimpressive collaboration of words on some pages. That was pretty harsh, so I must admit the book deserves a bit more credit than that, which is where this review really gets going.

MLA format Buddy Gonzales Miss Link Lit & Expression 25 October 2011 Another Kind of Faith Upon Reading Gary Soto’s abstractly designed collection, One Kind of Faith, I

Ok, back to business: Upon reading Gary Soto’s abstractly designed collection, One Kind of Faith, I realized that there really is something to be said for personal taste. For instance, a Gerald Stern--quoted on the book’s backside--found this work to be absolutely delightful. I, however, did not. That’s personal taste for you. Where others see a masterpiece or even a magnum opus, all I see is a rather unimpressive collaboration of words on some pages. That was pretty harsh, so I must admit the book deserves a bit more credit than that, which is where this review really gets going.

Go and Do Thou Likewise l Write the intro to your essay using what you have learned.