![]() ![]() The first question to ask, then, is if these lines describe things that are different from the rest. Most of this stanza describes the countryside and the local people. Remember that your thoughts are not "wrong" and mine are not "right." My thoughts are just to show some of the kinds of questions you can ask about a work. You could read straight through this article, but you would get more from it by pausing after every section of the poem to think about it and write down your own thoughts about it. If I were writing an essay on the poem, these would be my rough notes. To show you how close reading works, I have reproduced Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott" below, together with my thoughts about each section of it, just as they occurred to me. Strangely, good writing not only survives this treatment, but your respect for it and your pleasure in it increases afterwards. And you remember that to analyze something means to pull it into pieces. Instead, you examine the words, sentences, symbols, characters, and plot, as well as anything else that interests you. Your mind should be active, probing, wondering. You read on.Ĭlose reading is very different from reading for pleasure. You write down your questions and observations. You read a line, stanza, or paragraph, and then you think about it. In fact, ideally, you will mix all three methods.Ĭlose reading, the way I do it, means that you read the work with a pen in your hand and writing paper beside you. and do close reading of the work itself to see how it creates those effects.ĭo not do these in any particular order. ![]() read for pleasure to see what emotional effects the work has on you.research secondary sources or, in other words, read what others say about the work.When you try to understand a piece of writing you can use three methods, usually together: ![]()
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