Transcript Close Reading - Eleanor Roosevelt High School

Close Reading
a step-by-step demonstration
What is it?
• Close reading is the basis of almost any
kind of analytical writing about literature.
• The body paragraphs of an essay about a
literary work ARE close readings.
• Roy Johnson calls close reading “the most
important skill you need for any form of
literary studies.” He’s right.
What are the benefits to you?
Close reading allows you to-• demonstrate your understanding of a text;
• display your sensitivity to and awareness
of language;
• frame an interesting discussion or a
compelling argument about what is going
on in a text.
What steps should we follow?
Alyssa Harad, professor of writing at U.
Texas, suggests you follow the following
steps in the course of a close reading:
STEP 1: Information
• In this first step, you provide the context
(characters, speaker, audience, setting,
situation) related to your selected passage.
• This step “involves straightening out difficult
syntax, establishing context, looking up unknown
vocabulary and so on” (Harad).
• Remember! If your reader doesn’t know “the
name of the character in the passage, the time
of day, where the characters are,” he or she will
find it difficult to follow the rest of your reading.
Example:
Wife of Bath’s Tale, lines 8-13
I speke of manye hundred yeres ago.
But now kan no man se none elves mo,
For now the grete charitee and prayers
Of lymytours and othere hooly freres,
That serchen every lond and every streem,
As thikke as motes in the sonne-beem,
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------These early introductory lines in Alison’s tale follow a humorous
but stern rebuke by the Friar, who begs her to finish her
lengthy prologue (more than twice the length of the tale) and
move on to the tale. Alison opens the tale with a once-upona-time approach through which she contrasts the ancient days
of magical “elves” to the contemporary world, polluted by
“lymytours” and “freres,” such as the Friar himself.
STEP 2: Analysis
• This second step involves “the often very
concrete work of noticing that prepares the
reader for interpretation” (Harad).
• When analyzing the passage, you should be
zooming in on details at the level of language.
You might consider the overall structure of the
passage, word choice, repetition of words or
phrases, types of words, sentence/line/stanza
structure, literary devices, rhythm/meter, etc.
• This is where your reading should be very, very
close.
Example
I speke of manye hundred yeres ago.
But now kan no man se none elves mo,
For now the grete charitee and prayers
Of lymytours and othere hooly freres,
That serchen every lond and every streem,
As thikke as motes in the sonne-beem,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Alison’s diction and descriptive language serve to strengthen her
satire of the Friar. The double negative (“no,” “none”) in line 9
serves to drive home her opinion on the detrimental effects of
wandering figures like the Friar. Her voice oozing with sarcasm,
Alison explains that elves are no longer to be found, due to the
“grete” works of traveling clergymen. The overly polite mention of
“charitee and prayers” pokes even more fun at the Friar,
The combination of alliterative “s” sounds and visual description in
lines 12-13 produce a memorable image of nosy, wandering
Friar-like figures who are compared to “motes,” or bits of dust.
STEP 3: Interpretation
• During this stage, Harad, says, you should
be asking and answering the following
questions for your reader:
• What is the significance of the information
[you’ve] gathered? What new light does it
shed on the passage? How does it reveal
the importance of the passage [you’ve]
chosen to the rest of the text?
Example
I speke of manye hundred yeres ago.
But now kan no man se none elves mo,
For now the grete charitee and prayers
Of lymytours and othere hooly freres,
That serchen every lond and every streem,
As thikke as motes in the sonne-beem,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------This passage represents one of the few moments when
we see Alison interacting with the other pilgrims. It is a
telling exchange.