How to Do a Close Reading of a Text

Dr. McClennen's Close Reading Guide

HOW TO DO A Shut READING

The following has been Adapted From Albert Sheen's site at: http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~aesheen/Eng208-2-1999/closeread1.htm

The skill chosen "close reading" is central for interpreting literature. "Reading closely" ways developing a deep agreement and a precise interpretation of a literary passage that is based beginning and foremost on the words themselves. Only a shut reading does not stop there; rather, it embraces larger themes and ideas evoked and/or implied past the passage itself. It is essential that we distinguish between doing a shut reading and writing 1. Doing a shut reading involves a thought process that moves from small details to larger issues. Writing a close reading begins with these larger bug and uses the relevant details as testify.

I. Doing a shut reading

1. Getting Started: Care for the passage every bit if information technology were complete in itself. Read it a few times, at least in one case aloud. Concentrate on all its details and assume that everything is significant.  Make up one's mind what the passage is nigh and try to paraphrase it.  Make certain that you begin with a full general sense of the passage�s meaning.
2. Word significant: Determine the meanings of words and references. Also, note (and verify) interesting connotations of words. Await up whatsoever words you practice not know or which are used in unfamiliar ways. (Laziness in this step will inevitably consequence in diminished comprehension.) Consider the wording of the passage. What is the source of the language, i.due east., out of what kind of discourse does the linguistic communication seem to come? Did the author coin any words? Are there any slang words, innuendoes, puns, ambiguities? Do the words have interesting etymologies?
3. Construction: Examine the construction of the passage. How does it develop its themes and ideas? How is the passage organized? Are there climaxes and turning points?
4. Audio and Rhythm: Larn a feel for the sound, meter, and rhythm; note any aural clues that may affect the meaning. Even punctuation may be significant. Be warning to devices such as alliteration, assonance, rhyme, consonance, euphony, cacophony, onomatopoeia. Encounter a dictionary of poetics or rhetoric for precise definitions of these and other terms. Examine the meter of the passage in the same way. Is information technology regular or not? Decide whether the lines breaks compliment or complicate the meanings of the sentences.
5. Syntax: Examine the syntax and the arrangement of words in the sentences. Does the syntax call attention to itself? Are the sentences simple or complex? What is the rhythm of the sentences? How do subordinate clauses work in the passage? Are in that location interesting suspensions, inversions, parallels, oppositions, repetitions? Does the syntax allow for ambiguity or double meanings?
6. Textual Context: In what specific and general dramatic and/or narrative contexts does the passage appear? How do these contexts modify the meaning of the passage? What role does the passage play in the overall movement/moment of the text?
7. Irony: How does irony operate in the passage, if at all?
8. Tone and Narrative Voice: What is the speaker�south (as distinct from the narrator�s and author�south) attitude towards his or her subject and hearers? How is this reflected in the tone? What does the passage reveal about the speaker?  Who is the narrator?  What is the relationship betwixt the narrator and the speaker?  Is at that place more than than one speaker?
9. Imagery: What sort of imagery is invoked? How practice the images chronicle to those in the rest of the text? How do the images piece of work in the particular passage and throughout the text? What happens to the imagery over the course of the passage? Does the passage noticeably lack imagery? If and then, why?
10. Rhetorical Devices: Notation particularly interesting metaphors, similes, images, or symbols especially ones that recur in the passage or that were of import for the unabridged text. How practice they work with respect to the themes of the passage and the text as a whole? Are there any other notable rhetorical devices? Are in that location any classical, biblical or historical allusions? How do they piece of work?
11. Themes: Relate all of these details to possible themes that are both explicitly and implicitly evoked by the passage. Attempt to chronicle these themes to others appearing exterior the firsthand passage. These other themes may exist from the larger story from which the passage is excerpted; or from other tales; or from knowledge about the narrator; or from the piece of work equally a whole.
12. Gender: How does the passage construct gender?  What problems of gender identity does it evoke?  How does it represent women�s issues?  Does it reveal something interesting almost women�s writing?
13. History: How does the passage narrate history?  How does it nowadays "facts" versus observations?
14. Construct a Thesis: Based on all of this data and observation, construct a thesis that ties the details together. Decide how the passage illuminates the concerns, themes, and bug of the unabridged text information technology is a part of.  Inquire yourself how the passage provides insight into the text (and the context of the text).  Try to determine how the passage provides us a key to understanding the piece of work equally whole.

Note that this process moves from the smallest bits of information (words, audio, punctuation) to larger groupings (images, metaphors) to larger concepts (themes). Also, the final argument is based on these smaller levels of the passage; this is why it is chosen a close reading. Of course your thought processes may not follow such a rigid lodge (mine usually don�t). Just don�t omit any of the steps.

II. Writing it

1. The paper should begin with a closely argued thesis, which is the outcome of the concluding step above. Include a general orientation to the passage to be analyzed, explaining the text of origin and the author.
2. The thesis depends on the analysis already done, and the betoken is to relate all of the relevant details to that thesis. This means that some details may be omitted in the paper because they do not support or business organisation the thesis being argued. Likewise much detail virtually unimportant features will draw attention from your thesis.  However, you lot must be careful that you do not ignore details that contradict your thesis; if you find these, this means that you need to reevaluate your thesis and make information technology more complex (in other words, you don�t necessarily accept to abandon it altogether).
3. Note that the order of the evidence presented should not follow the order of the passage existence discussed. Rather, the order of the evidence depends on how it relates to your central argument. Don�t let the passage walk you through your analysis; instead, re- organize the passage to accommodate your discussion of information technology.
4. The body of the paper presents relevant textual evidence in a meaningful order. Avoid being overly mechanical in the organisation of your paper. That is, don�t write ane paragraph on diction, one on sound, ane on metaphor, etc. Instead try to bring these observations together on the same words or phrases together. Organize the paragraphs around issues of pregnant rather than of technique.
5. Make certain you don�t read and then closely that yous transform a articulate though complex passage into a bundle of nonsense.
6. If you relate the passage to text outside information technology, brand certain your emphasis remains on the passage itself; do non fail it in favor of external textual evidence.

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Helpful Links:

Key elements to close readings: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~fvneill/e102/creadingg.html

Jack Lynch�s keys to shut reading: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/EngPaper/close.html

Guide to MLA documentation: http://webster.commnet.edu/mla.htm

Keys to understanding the passage�southward location in the text: http://web.reed.edu/bookish/departments/Writing/close-reading.html

General guide with literary elements: http://world wide web.homeworkhelp.com/homeworkhelp/freemember/text/english language/loftier/lessons/rp004/03/chief.htm

Steps for a close reading from literary Link: http://theliterarylink.com/closereading.html

Dr. McClennen's Keys to Writing

Created and Maintained by Dr. Sophia A. McClennen Copyright Sophia A. McClennen 2001 For EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

Created on 8/five/01 Last updated on 10/03/2003

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Source: https://personal.psu.edu/users/s/a/sam50/closeread.htm

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