Close Reading (How to use the Four Ways handout for your essay)

Your handout says that "ideally, every close-reading would involve each of these methods." As you construct your midterm essays, you will probably want to focus most closely on the first three. Although you don't have to follow this trajectory, I recommend approaching close reading in this essay something like this:

1. Start With Backwards

Because you are responding to a prompt, it makes sense for you to begin by looking for passages that deal with the topic you chose and then considering how it is dealt with in those passages.

2. Linger in Instinct

This is frequently where the most interesting questions will arise. Look back at passages that caught your eye when you started with Backwards. Think about the implications any peculiar images, contradictions or ambiguities you find might have for thinking about your topic.

3. Back it up with Brute Force

You usually don't want this kind of close reading to be the entire content of your paper because, like the handout says, it can get overly formulaic. That said, you will probably need this kind of reading to fully articulate what you found in Instinct. If a passage has a "strange" tone or a "haunting" sound, you'll have to pay close attention to the sounds, rhythms and structures that are creating that effect. If you want to say that a speaker's blithe tone seems at odds with her weighty subject matter, you'll want to show your reader what makes the tone blithe.

4. Be sparing with Comparatively

Once you have a clear idea of how your topic is working in the text you chose, you may want to bring in some of the ideas from Hale or Fern. Be careful though - don't let these texts distract you from engagement with the text you're working on. A discussion of friendship, motherhood or space in Hale and Fern cannot replace a solid understanding of each of these as they are dealt with in the text you're working on. Don't look to Hale and Fern for definitive pronouncements on your topic that you can insert seamlessly into your text. If you do bring in Hale or Fern, consider their ideas in dialogue with the ones you find in your text.


these suggestions refer to and should be used in conjunction with your handout "Four Ways to Close Read" by Katherine Isokawa