Close Reading This one-page, single-spaced paper should be a “close reading”—or a slow, careful reading— that focuses on the language of a short passage in one of our course texts (at most two pages). Close readings can be more exploratory than argumentative essays, so while they should have a coherent flow, they aren’t driven by a thesis. Instead close readings are driven by the language of your passage. These papers will differ from your critical responses because instead of focusing on your ability to make and then support an argument, close readings focus on your ability to very carefully interpret a text—and to develop insights that are grounded in textual evidence. A close reading should analyze a passage by paying attention to the specific words an author uses. This is not about plot; in fact, the key is to avoid paraphrase and to focus on explaining the specific words and syntax an author has chosen, along with the effects of that choice. You should look up words you don't understand, track down references to proper names or unfamiliar objects, and explain things word by word. Pay attention to key terms, categories, figurative language, and rhetorical gestures. And make frequent use of the Oxford English Dictionary. While your focus is on one passage, you can absolutely track the ways that a word, phrase, or image from your passage works in or travels through a text. The idea isn’t to only reference one paragraph or page; it’s to keep your focus on the language of your passage. Finally, close reading is not about using an image or phrase as an excuse to make global claims or generalizations about a text; instead, close reading is about slowing down and dwelling with what makes a moment different—or accounting for distinctions. This practice invites (or forces) you to slow down and to identify problems or concerns that aren’t obvious with a more cursory reading. 1. Select a Passage. Choose any part of the reading due the day you submit your close reading. Selecting a good passage is a large part of the work of really thinking through this assignment. Make sure you pick a passage that you’re actually interested in. (Play to your strengths!) But you should also be puzzled by or curious about at least some aspect of your passage. If nothing seems to stand out, or if nothing seems especially perplexing, intriguing, important, interesting, revealing, etc. then you will probably have a difficult time writing so much about your passage. And if you find that you really have nothing to say: let your passage go. Strategically you might write about the text you plan to focus on for your critical response! Then use this to get started! 2. Annotate. Take your passage out of context, type it up, print it off, and write on it. Your goal, here, is to free associate: What does your passage evoke? What memories, feelings, images, or other works come to mind when you think about its language? What impression does it make? Spend 20 minutes writing everything you can: no filter. Any insight could turn out to be helpful. If you’re stuck, you might also slow down even more. Try printing off three copies: • On the first, read for diction and layers of meaning. Circle and look up words in the OED, noting possible definitions in the margins. Then look for discrepancies between literal meanings and figurative senses of words, consider etymologies, and sort out which meanings were prevalent in the applicable decade or century. • On the second copy, read for figurative language and rhetorical devices. Circle or underline any and all uses of metaphor, simile, synecdoche, irony, paradox, apostrophe, repetition, hyperbole, understatement, and so on. Then ask yourself how these devices and uses of language contribute to the text’s “meaning,” or create effects. • On the third copy, read for sound (alliteration, consonance, assonance) and sense (sight, touch, taste, smell). For example, you might notice that the word you’re focusing on sounds hard or abrupt. Why might that be? And what is the effect of that abruptness?

3. Compare. Look through the text to see whether there are other words, passages, or moments that you would associate with words or phrases in your passage. Identify comparable or related moments or usages, and then compare and contrast them—or draw out contradictions. For example, you might find that a different character uses the same word later in the text. Why might the text have recycled that particular word? Or how does it change when uttered by another character? You might also notice that one phrase or image appears over and over. How is it different in this moment? Can you make a broader claim about how and when the image seems similar or different? Here you might find that an electronic copy of your text can be especially helpful, since you can search specific words and phrases. (Google the title of your text with “etext” or try Google Books). 4. Situate. Consider the relationship between your passage and the broader goals of your text. Then start to explain how that passage contributes to its meaning as a whole. Here, you’ll have to think about the work’s arc, its themes, and its politics. How does your passage advance, complicate, stall, contradict, impede, foreshadow, or contribute to your work’s larger goals? You might also think about your passage’s location in the text. Is it at the beginning of the novel and clearly setting up future events? Or does it offer a new development as the text concludes? 5. Writing and Revising. Since you only have one page, you can’t waste any time. Dive right in. No “throat clearing,” padding or declarations about what you’re going to say as your response develops. I recommend that you begin by quoting a key moment in your passage. But what’s essential is that you avoid “fluffy,” vague introductory statements that you can’t possibly support with textual evidence. (This isn’t the time for “Moby-Dick by Herman Melville is often described as the Great American Novel). Then strategically present details that help you make an argument about the text’s overall meaning. Show the reader these details, and then show your interpretation of specific words and phrases. Your sentences should oscillate between the presentation of textual evidence (usually quotations; occasionally paraphrases) and your interpretation of this evidence. Finally, you don’t need a thesis statement on your first page. Even so, a “thesis-like idea” should emerge by the end of the paper. That is, your analysis should build toward a point, and it should have some sort of flow and coherence. That point doesn’t have to be earth-shatteringly brilliant or about a “big idea.” Instead, you just need to say something clear and compelling about the relationship between your passage and the novel in general. Then, once you find it: revise. Sample Essays from another course: Financial Terminology | Stubb’s Supper | Whale Lines 6. Submission. Email at least two hours before class by replying to our “Close Reading” thread. (These are not formally presented, but you should use your work to contribute to class discussion! These must be submitted before the day we finish Faulkner. Ideally you’ll write them earlier so you can use them to develop your critical responses. Close readings must be about one of the texts we’ll be discussing the day that you submit them. Formatting and writing guidelines • Font: Times New Roman size 11 • Formatting: Standard margins, single-spaced, no extra spaces between paragraphs. • Heading: Use the “header and footer” function to place your name and the page number in the top-right corner of each page. Then post the first phrase and the page number of the passage you’ll be reading as your title; for example: “Our Age is Retrospective” (3). • Citations: Parentheticals with page numbers and endnotes for external sources. 7. Grading is based primarily on careful textual engagement that makes use of a range of the strategies described here (75%), along with crafting a coherent narrative about your passage (25%). You select your own deadlines, so there are no extensions. Papers won’t be accepted after 2/22.