Key Steps of Close Reading
1. Read slowly and carefully
2. As you read, mark up the page. (You’re looking for things like: tropes, images, metaphors, key words, genre, hints about narrative voice and audience, and other things that stand out to you.)
3. Look at your marks and note any patterns (themes, groupings, absences, opposites, increases/decreases in frequency or urgency, etc)
4. Formulate how/why questions based on those patterns
5. Take the how/why questions and go back to the text, reading closely a second time to look for further information
6. Formulate a main claim
7. Support the main claim with details, organized in a logical order (and indicated by topic sentences)
8. Explain why you have chosen to discuss these specific elements (intro paragraph)
9. Write the full draft of your close reading
10. Revise, edit, and proofread it
For a first draft of a close reading, you should go through steps 1-4.
If you think you are “on” to something, then you can revise and expand your reading, formalizing it by going through all 10 steps. You have to read slowly and carefully, and you have to translate your observations into written text, organizing them behind a unifying claim (thesis) and into discrete portions (paragraphs with topic sentences).[supanova_question]
“Genesis” by Robert Alter
READ INSTRUCTIONS!!!
I will provide the Genesis text under the files. Please pick the passage only from the text I provide and make sure the passage is included with your work as well as cited with a page and line numbers. You can choose any 10-15 lines that you find suitable to write about starting from Chapter 1 to Chapter 30. The Genesis text As we have begun Genesis, I want to enhance your reading by looking closely at specific passages from the text. Through focusing on particular moments in a text, we can start to appreciate the complexity and detail of the literary works we read as well as get a sense of how to handle the language of a text. As in your previous close readings, this 2-page paper is a chance for you to do just that: you will interpret the meaning of a specific passage by analyzing its language, details, and structure–connecting what is said to how it is said. Your goal here is to uncover larger patterns–repetitions, contradictions, similarities–and analyze specific details like word choices, figurative language, senses evoked (visual, aural, or emotional), grammar, and syntax. In exploring the themes and meaning of the passage and focusing on how the language enhances or complicates that meaning, you will benefit from focusing on moments of ambiguity or tension: in other words, exploring some aspects of the passage that may suggest more than one meaning.
Instructions
Pick a passage: Select a passage (around 10 to 15 lines) from Genesis that you found particularly striking, interesting, or even confusing. Passages should be coherent—try to pick a moment in the text that makes sense to discuss on its own.
Transcribe a Passage: Copy the passage at the top of your paper, being careful with formatting and spelling. Note that Genesis is written mostly in prose, not in verse–so in most cases you will not need to use line breaks.
Contextualize and Paraphrase: Briefly introduce the passage you are focusing on by situating it within the larger context of the Genesis and describing concisely what is being said in your own words.
Observations and Analysis: Paying attention to the larger patterns (repetitions, contrasts, similarities) and specific details (word choices, figurative language, senses evoked, etc…), analyze how the passage is expressing the meaning or themes explored here. Focus on how aspects of the language, details, and structure enhance or complicate the meaning—you might benefit by focusing on ambiguities or tensions in the text. Be sure to quote from your passage throughout, supporting your explanation with textual evidence
Interpretation: You should conclude your paper with a summary of your interpretation of the passage’s meaning and how it connects to the language. Why is the passage being expressed this way? How did this impact our understanding of the meaning or themes developed here? You may choose to end with a larger question for exploration. Aim for a claim here that has some tension and drama, something that you would not have been able to say about this passage without close observation.[supanova_question]
of Latino culture in New York theatre.
Language and Culture Assignment Help -discuss general importance of latino culture in new york theatre
-discuss importance of the play Hamilton in latino culture.[supanova_question]
on The Handmaid’s Tale
It is not simply through physical coercion—armed guards, for example—that
women’s freedoms are curtailed in this text. In what other ways is control exercised
over the Handmaids? [You might think, for example, about reading and writing,
accounts of the past, unwritten rules, ritual and patterns, colors and clothes, the giving
or withholding of privileges, the withholding of knowledge, the reconstruction of the
past, unspoken expectations, and the use of Scripture.]
Basically Find Three ways the women have freedom taken from them besides physical coersion and support them with three pieces of evidence (quotes) from the book
Essay format should look like this
Introductory paragraph
Body paragraph 1
Body paragraph 2
Body paragraph 3
conclusion
DO NOT STRAY FROM FORMAT OR GO OVER WORD COUNT, KEEP EXPLANATIONS BRIEF PLEASE. YOU SHOULD ONLY HAVE 5 TOTAL PARAGRAPHS WITH AN ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM OF 1350 WORDS
• In your introductory paragraph, set forth your main assertions and the precisely-worded thesis that flows from those points.
• Begin each subsequent paragraph by restating the main assertion in question; thereafter, set forth sub-points that will follow in that paragraph.
• In each paragraph, provide at least three pieces of textual evidence for the main assertion being demonstrated.
• For each piece of evidence, give [1] the context (introducing or leading in to the
quotation), [2] the quotation itself, [3] the page reference, [4] your commentary on the quotation, and—if moving from A to B or A[supanova_question]