Prof. Sara Keeth, UT Dallas.

How to do a close reading

1. Suspend Judgment a. Paraphrase some of the text fight the tendency to think that the meaning of words is self-evident b. Do some freewriting explore the subject through writing c. Search for the source take impressions back to causes 2. Define Significant Parts or Details and How Theyre Related a. Notice & Focus return your attention to the subject before you decide what it means i. LOOK at the text: What do you notice? Make a list. ii. Rank your list: Which three details are the most interesting, significant, revealing or strange to you? iii. Write sentences explaining to yourself: Why are those three things the most interesting, significant, revealing or strange to you? b. Write 10 about 1 narrow your focus i. Write ten observations, ideas or implications about one example ii. Write ten about a different example if you want or need to. 3. Look for Patterns of Repetition & Contrast and for Anomaly a. Locate exact repetitions of words. Mark or list them and number the repetitions. b. Locate strands of words and list them. Write a sentence naming the connecting logic of each strand. c. Locate binary oppositions and list them. Circle or map the ones you think are the most important organizing contrasts. d. Rank or mark the two most important repetitions, strands, and binaries. e. Choose the most important repetition, strand or binary and write a healthy paragraph explaining to yourself why your choice is important for understanding your subject. f. Look for anomalies, or things that do not fit your binaries. Consider complicating or collapsing your binaries. g. Answer the questions: i. What is the tension or struggle within the binaries? ii. What is the text anxious about or trying to resolve? 4. Make the Implicit Explicit a. Convert Suggestions into Direct Statements make inferences i. Go back to your list of observations, your 10 about 1, or your binaries. ii. Write down 5-10 (or more) sentences with inferences about or implications of your observations. iii. Restate any suggestions in the text or in your observations as direct statements. *You are free to write anything it could possibly mean, based on what you notice in the text. b. So What? move from observations toward implications i. Write two sentences (or more): Why does this observation matter? What does it mean? ii. Write two sentences (or more): Where does this observation get me? iii. Write two sentences (or more): How can I begin to generalize about this subject? 5. Keep Reformulating Questions & Explanations a. Examine your first responses for ways they are too general (or too specific), and then develop the implications of these overstatements into a new formulation. *Feel free to change your thesis as many times as you like, at any point during your writing process. b. Ask yourself: i. What kind of questions does the material or subject ask? ii. What is the subject inviting me to think, and how is it doing that inviting? iii. What is the context of this text or this subject?

Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically with Readings. Boston: Wadsworth, 2008.

Prof. Sara Keeth, UT Dallas.

The Short Version of The Five Analytical Moves Which details seem significant? Why? What does the detail mean? What else might it mean? How do the details fit together? What do they have in common? What does this pattern of details mean? What else might this same pattern of details mean? How else could this be explained? What details dont seem to fit? How might they be connected with other details to form a new pattern? What does this new pattern mean? How might it cause me to read the meaning of individual details differently?

Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically with Readings. Boston: Wadsworth, 2008.