Close Readings

Introduction

• Develop an understanding of a text based first on the words themselves and then on the large ideas those words suggest

• Start with the small details.

• Think about them.

• Discover how they affect the text's larger meaning.

When you write about close readings...

• Start with the larger meaning that you have discovered and use the small details--the language itself--to support your interpretations.

What to look for...

• The interactions among subject, speaker, and audience

• The response to the context and purpose of the interactions

• The style: language, tone, sentence structure, colloquialisms, vocabulary, etc.

Analyzing Diction

• Which of the important words in the passage (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs) are general and abstract? Which are specific and concrete?

• Are the important words formal, informal, colloquial, or slang?

• Are some words non-literal or figurative, creating figures of speech (metaphor, simile...)?

Analyzing Syntax

• What is the order of the parts of the sentence? S-V-O or inverted?

• Which part of speech is more prominent--verbs or nouns?

• What are the sentences like--periodic (moving toward something important at the end) or cumulative (adding details that support an important idea in the beginning of the sentence)?

• How does the sentence connect its words, phrases, and clauses?

Annotation

• Circle words that you do not know.

• Identify main ideas--thesis statements or topic sentences.

• Look for figures of speech--metaphor, simile, personification, etc.

• Look for imagery and details.

• Use the margins to comment/make notes on what you have read or any questions that you may have.

• Then ask yourself: What effect is the author striving for? How does this effect serve the purpose of the writing?

TP-CAST (yields theme)

• Title

• Paraphrase

• Connotation

• Attitude

• Shifts

• Theme

DIDLS (yields tone)

• Diction

• Imagery

• Details

• Language

• Syntax