{"id":127,"date":"2019-10-18T17:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/?p=127"},"modified":"2019-10-18T17:00:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:00:02","slug":"close-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/2019\/10\/18\/close-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Close Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Close reading<\/strong>&nbsp;is the careful, sustained analysis of any text that focuses on significant details or patterns and that typically examines some aspect of the text\u2019s form, craft, meanings, and more.&nbsp;<strong>The goal of close reading is to discover both (a) how a text makes meaning, and (b) what it means, in your interpretation.<\/strong>&nbsp;To accomplish this, we:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Look closely at the language and rhetorical moves employed<\/li><li>Explore patterns and themes we find<\/li><li>Notice anything else we can about a text <em>without using outside sources<\/em>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Reading methods that assist close reading:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Read slowly and pay attention to each element on the page, down to the level of the punctuation.<\/li><li>Reread a text several times to notice new elements<\/li><li>Read it aloud \u2013 the arrangement and sequences of sounds matters and contributes to meaning<\/li><li>Annotate, annotate, annotate! Annotate some more. Mark important words, sounds, images, phrases, sections, anything you noticed while slowly reading and rereading and listening to the text.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Do a Close Reading: Zoom In from the Big Picture to the Smallest Elements of a Text.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Step 1: Answer larger questions of context<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What subjects does the work address?<\/li><li>Who is the speaker?<\/li><li>What is the work\u2019s larger context?<\/li><li>What genre are we dealing with?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Step 2: Answer questions about the form and structure\/organization of the text:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>How is the work put together? If it\u2019s a poem, what is its stanza-makeup? What kind of poem is it? Rhyme and meter? Sonnet or epic (or other type)? How does it scan?<\/li><li>What devices like repetition, punctuation, or section divisions do you find?<\/li><li>Is there a frame structure to consider?<\/li><li>How does the work use white space?<\/li><li>What typographical devices, if any, do you encounter?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Step 3: Look closely at the language in the piece:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What kind of diction is used?<\/li><li>What pattern or repetitions in the language do you find? Either in word choice or sound?<\/li><li>Which images stand out and why?<\/li><li>Does the writer use personification (giving human attributes to the non-human), metaphor (one thing is another), simile (one this is like another), or other figurative language? If so, how\/where and what role does it play?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Step 4:\u00a0<strong>Make a claim, an argument, about\u00a0how\u00a0the text works to generate a certain meaning.<\/strong>\u00a0This is your thesis.\u00a0Use your notes from answering the above questions to formulate a hypothesis about how a specific element of the text is significant to its meaning. Not everything you noticed will support your argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activity: Get Local with Your Word for Close Reading Evidence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Select a word. Zoom in on just the paragraph or the stanza in which that word appears. Read that paragraph or stanza\u00a0<em>very carefully\u00a0<\/em>and annotate it in order to discover connections that will constitute close reading evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use annotation to help you draw connections between:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Your word and a major theme of the chapter or piece as a whole.<\/li><li>Your word and the action of the plot<\/li><li>Your word and its position within the chapter, if that is significant. (It is especially if it falls in the first or last sentence.)<\/li><li>Your word and the words around it in the paragraph\/passage at large.<\/li><li>Your word and its position in its own sentence.<\/li><li>Your word and figurative language. Is it figurative, a pun, or related to nearby figurative language?<\/li><li>Your word and punctuation.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>From these notes and brainstorms, what begins to emerge about how this word works to make meaning in its very local context?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sources consulted and adapted: Purdue Owl\u2019s \u201cClose Reading Poetry: An Overview\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/viewerng\/viewer?url=https:\/\/owl.english.purdue.edu\/media\/ppt\/20090902102259_751.ppt\">https:\/\/docs.google.com\/viewerng\/viewer?url=https:\/\/owl.english.purdue.edu\/media\/ppt\/20090902102259_751.ppt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Close reading&nbsp;is the careful, sustained analysis of any text that focuses on significant details or patterns and that typically examines some aspect of the text\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2457,"featured_media":128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,21,18,20,22,17],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lesson","tag-close-reading","tag-complexity","tag-critical-reading","tag-critical-thinking","tag-literature","tag-reading"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",700,907,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",579,750,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",247,320,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579-232x300.jpg",232,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",525,680,false],"large":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",525,680,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",700,907,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",700,907,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",579,750,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",247,320,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579.jpg",77,100,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/files\/2019\/10\/6580579-490x375.jpg",490,375,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Kirstyn Leuner","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/author\/kleuner\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/category\/lesson\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Lesson<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"Close reading&nbsp;is the careful, sustained analysis of any text that focuses on significant details or patterns and that typically examines some aspect of the text\u2019s&hellip;","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/leunereng68fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}