Close reading is really just reading a poem or a passage from a longer work and analyzing it in fine detail, as if with a magnifying glass. Basically, you want to go over the passage word by word, seeing what you notice or what stands out to you, what makes you pause, etc. You then comment on points of style (how the author uses words) and on your reactions as a reader. Close reading is important because it is the building block for larger analysis. Your thoughts evolve not from someone else's truth about the reading, but from your own observations. The more closely you can observe, the more original and exact your ideas will be. To begin your close reading, ask yourself several specific questions about the passage. The following questions are not a formula, but a starting point for your own thoughts. When you arrive at some answers, you are ready to organize and write literary analysis (or what IB calls "commentary"). Generally, questions like the ones below help you to A) notice things and B) step back a little and ask yourself WHY you notice them and WHY the author might have made this choice. That second part, B, is what will lead you to good literary analysis -- considering the why/so what/to what effect questions.
Read with a pencil (or colored pencils or highlighters) in hand and MARK UP the passage as you read. Read through several times -- most good literature doesn't reveal its secrets on the first or second read-through!
I. First Impressions:
II. Vocabulary and Diction:
III. Discerning Patterns:
IV. Point of View and Characterization:
V. Symbolism & Metaphor:
If you wish to walk through a close-reading of a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, click here.
(adapted from this source)
Literary analysis involves taking what you've noticed during close reading and discussion and forming some sort of thesis (an arguable statement or proposition) about WHAT is going on, HOW the author has created this idea, and WHY he/she did so (in other words, what's the point?).
Literary analysis often discusses/explores:
Literary analysis must:
Literary analysis should NOT:
Examples of good thesis statements (concrete, specific, reasonable, and clear):
- In Othello, Shakespeare uses irony to make his audience aware of the complex nature of both trust and betrayal.
- Orwell's 1984 explores how totalitarianism can deny people their fundamental rights -- to love, to live in community, and to have a sense of individual identity -- thus effectively robbing them of their humanity.
You can find an example of a good literary analysis essay here.