Today someone asked me over QQ about the “format” of a reading report, and someone else on the department forum raised the same question too. I happened to say a few words about my personal view, so I’m reposting it here:
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When you quote something, cite the source. Don’t think too much about the rest.
This is not writing in an ossified eight-part style; the form of the essay is flexible. Sort out your thinking in whatever way seems clearest and most straightforward to you, and it is best to have a clear thread.
A reading report does not necessarily have to summarize every single point in the original book comprehensively. Nor do you need to copy the author’s line of thought wholesale. Reorganize it according to your own ideas, retell the author’s ideas in your own logic, grasp some key points and main themes, and expand or supplement them appropriately.
Try not to turn it into a reading response. Your own impressions should only be touched on briefly; there is no need to say a lot, and it is fine not to add any impressions at all. The key to a reading report lies in retelling the author’s line of thought through your own understanding. The original text may be obscure, and its logical structure may be loose; then you should use the most fluent and concise language for you to restate what you have been able to understand. That is original work that belongs to you alone. Concentrate your attention and creativity on the work of understanding and interpretation; if your logic has clear levels, then naturally you will write in some kind of layered structure, and naturally you will resort to some effective format to express it. So the key issue is understanding and interpretation. Don’t be greedy and try to include everything; if you cannot read something through or make sense of it yourself, don’t speak nonsense. What you write should be something you yourself can read smoothly and understand clearly, and that will do.
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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