Close Reading Strategies

WHAT IS CLOSE READING?

Close reading is a way of interacting with a piece of literature in order to extract a deeper meaning than if one read the text casually. It is important in understanding the author's purpose and how he or she achieves that purpose. Close reading allows the reader to pick out important details that might have gone unnoticed at first glance. It is important that the text is read multiple times and annotations are made so the reader can go back and notice shifts and changes throughout the piece.

HOW DO YOU CONDUCT A CLOSE READ?

For me, I find it helpful to write down initial thoughts and predictions just from looking at the title of the text. Then, after reading the text for the first time, I write down a short summary of the piece. While going through the piece a second time, I highlight significant phrases and make comments on the setting, the author's techniques, and ideas about the author's purpose. Finally, I made wrote out what I thought the author's purpose was and, because this particular piece was satirical, I wrote about various elements of satire the author used.

For more information on how to close read, I've attached some resources here.

https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-do-close-reading

https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/reading_lit.html

Here is a visual example of a close reading I did recently. The literal piece was Johnathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal".

After studying and practicing close reading, I can see how close reading facilitates a deeper understanding not only of the literal meaning of a text, but also the message the author is trying to convey and the techniques used to do so.