How to Write a Book Report in Japanese: Structuring 3 Sheets of Manuscript Paper and Budgeting the Character Count

How many characters per sheet

A sheet of Japanese manuscript paper has 20 squares × 20 lines, or 400 characters. Multiply the required number of sheets by 400 to get the number of characters you need.

• If the assignment says "up to 3 sheets", anything that doesn't exceed 3 sheets is fine. But stopping at a sheet and a half looks too short, so aim for at least 80% of the stated length.
• If it says "about 3 sheets", anything from two and a half to three sheets is within range.
• If it says exactly "3 sheets", the norm is to write down to around the last line of the third sheet.
• When you are entering a specific contest, such as Japan's national youth book report contest, each school year has a maximum character count (as a rough guide, 800 for the lower elementary grades, 1,200 for the middle and upper grades, and 2,000 for junior high and high school). Always check that year's entry guidelines.

Divide 1,200 characters among five blocks

The most common mistake in a book report is letting the plot summary take up more than half of it. The summary is only a lead-in so readers can follow the thoughts you're about to share. With the allocation below, you keep enough characters for your own ideas.

At the same ratios, 800 characters becomes about 80, 120, 280, 200 and 120, and 2,000 characters about 200, 300, 700, 500 and 300. In manuscript paper squares, block (3) of a 1,200-character report is about 21 lines.

The heart of this structure is blocks (3) and (4), which together make up 60%. What readers want to know is not what the book is about but what you thought after reading it. Whether you can narrow block (3) down to a single scene makes a big difference to how easy the report is to write.

Writing steps

1. 1

   Use sticky notes while reading

   Stick a note on lines that caught your attention, surprised you or annoyed you. If you look for them after finishing, you end up rereading the book. Five to ten notes is plenty.

2. 2

   Pick 3 of the marked passages

   From the passages you marked, pick the three you reacted to most strongly. They don't have to be moving; "I couldn't accept this" or "this is different from me" is fine. In fact, those tend to give you more to write about.

3. 3

   Note why you chose them

   For each of the three, write one sentence about why it caught you. The one you have the most to say about is the scene for block (3).

4. 4

   Write block by block, keeping the character count in mind

   Write in order from block (1). It's a draft, not a fair copy, so don't worry about presentation. Note the target character count at each block break.

5. 5

   Count characters and adjust the allocation

   Paste the draft into the character counter and the number of characters, words and lines appears instantly. If block (2) is too long, cut the descriptions of the characters. What gets cut is usually the plot summary.

6. 6

   Make a fair copy on manuscript paper

   Copy it out once the allocation is right. You'll be tempted to revise as you copy, but rewriting a lot will throw off the allocation, so limit yourself to fixing typos. If you don't have manuscript paper, you can print 400-square sheets yourself as described in how to print manuscript paper.

Common stumbling points in the writing

• The opening: starting with "I was moved after reading this book" leaves you nowhere to go next. Start with a scene ("When the main character said ..., I had to close the book") or with why you chose the book, and the rest follows naturally.
• The plot summary: you don't need to tell the ending. Write only enough for the scene in block (3) to make sense. If you feel you've written too much, cut the character introductions first.
• Quotations: when you quote the book, put the passage in quotation marks and add the page number so readers can follow. Keep it to one or two quotations and don't quote at length. Too many quotations eat into your own word count.
• Words for your reaction: don't stop at "amazing" or "interesting"; give one concrete example of what was amazing and how. Comparisons (a book you read before, your own experience) make it concrete.
• The ending: "I want to keep reading lots of books" is a stock phrase. Write just one thing that changed precisely because you read this book.
• Style: stick to either the polite style (desu/masu) or the plain written style (da/de aru). Mixing them is the thing most often pointed out when the fair copy is checked.

Things to watch when counting characters

If you type up a draft and count it, the result won't match the number of squares used when you copy it onto manuscript paper. Knowing why saves you a panic later.

The character counter tool shows characters including spaces, characters excluding spaces, words and lines at the same time. For a book report, look at "characters excluding spaces". The number of manuscript squares will be a little higher than this because of paragraph indents and blank squares at the ends of lines. If your target is 1,200 characters, about 1,150 typed characters will fit on 3 sheets once copied out.

If you write by hand first, counting lines is quicker. One line of manuscript paper holds 20 characters, so 1,200 characters is 60 lines, or 3 sheets. If you count how many characters fit on a line of your draft notebook, you can convert.

FAQ

How many characters are 3 sheets of manuscript paper?

One sheet is 20 squares × 20 lines = 400 characters, so 3 sheets is 1,200. If the assignment says "up to 3 sheets", you're fine as long as you don't go over, but stopping at about a sheet and a half looks too short. Aim for 80% of the stated length, which is 960 characters or more for 3 sheets. The fair copy uses a few more squares than your typed count because of paragraph indents and blank squares at line ends.

How much of the plot should a book report include?

About 15% of the whole, or around 180 characters for 1,200, is enough. The summary is just a lead-in so readers can follow your discussion of the scene that stayed with you, so write only the characters and the central event, and leave out the ending. If the summary is more than half, trimming the character descriptions is the easiest way to adjust.

What should I do if I can't think of anything to write?

Trying to sum up your thoughts on the whole book makes you freeze. Choose just one scene that stayed with you and write by answering three questions about it: why did it catch you, what would you have done, and have you had a similar experience? It doesn't have to be a moving scene; one you couldn't accept, or one where you felt different from the character, is sometimes easier to write about.

Is it OK to draft on a computer and then copy onto manuscript paper?

Even if the report must be handwritten, drafting on a computer is fine. You can check the character count instantly and adjusting the allocation is easy. But typed character counts and manuscript squares don't match: paragraph indents and blank squares at line ends use up extra squares, so if the target is 1,200, aim for about 1,150 when typing.