visual argument
Close Reading Worksheet
For example, look at
diction
. What kinds of words does the author use? Look up any that
are unfamiliar. Does she or he aim for lofty diction (used for special occasions) or
common diction? Are the words long or short, Latinate or Anglo-Saxon, specialized (i.e.
legalistic, medical, jargon, elite) or ordinary? Remember that the rules for diction are
different at different times in history.
The PowerPoints for this week:
Rhetorical Strategies
and
Rhetorical Devices
can help
you narrow down what you want to focus on for your close reading.
3. Next, look at
sentence structure
. Can you map the sentences (find the subject
and verb, locate phrases and clauses)? Does the author use active or passive
verbs? What rhythms or patterns does the sentence structure create—long flowing
ones, short choppy ones—and how do these relate to the meaning?
4. Does the passage contain
figurative language
? What sensory images or
metaphors or similes do you observe? What is the significance or effect of the
author’s use or lack of figurative language?
5. What do you notice about the
structure
of the passage overall? Does it have a
climax or significant turning point? How does it organize or develop its ideas,
impressions, or themes?
6. You can also analyze
tone
. Is the narrator being straightforward, factual, open?
Or is he taking a less direct route toward his meaning? Does the voice carry
emotion? Or is it detached from its subject? Do you hear irony? If so, what do you
make of it?
7. Once you have a grasp of the language, you can begin to look for
problems or
complications
in your reading of the passage, to move beyond
description to
interpretation
. What are the effects of the technical features of the passage? In
the example above, you may discover some difference between what the author
appears to be doing (giving you a complete, unbiased narrative) and what she also
accomplishes (raising doubts about the narrator’s point of view, whether he fully
understands the implications of what he’s seen, whether this narrator can be
trusted, etc.). You can now begin to talk about the ways Shelley’s language,
which
seems
to invite our confidence, is also raising these doubts.
8. At this point, you can propose a generic
hypothesis
, something like, “In this
passage, Shelley raises questions about Victor Frankenstein’s character through
her contrast between the violence Frankenstein witnesses and his seemingly
bland, even inappropriate response to it.” You can proceed to fill in the outlines of
this point by explaining what you mean, using details and quotations from the
passage to support your point.
9. You still need an argument and will need to go back to your opening to sharpen
the thesis. The question is
Why
? Or
to what effect
?
Your thesis might build on
what you’ve already written by suggesting the larger implications of your
observations and by structuring your paper more rigorously.
10. Using this method to get started, you will have achieved some very important
things, namely:
1) you have chosen a specific piece of the text to work with, hence avoiding
generalizations and abstractions that tend to turn a reader off;
2) you have moved from exposition (explaining or summarizing what’s there) to
arguing a point, which will involve your reader in a more interactive and risky
encounter;
3) you have carved out your
own
reading of the text rather than taking the more
well-worn path;
4) you have identified something about Shelley’s method that may well open up
other areas of the text for study and debate. Bravo!
11. With your more refined thesis in place, you can go back and make sure your
supporting argument explains the questions you’ve raised, follows through on
your argument, and comes to a provocative conclusion. By the end, you may be
able to expand from your initial passage to a larger point, but use your
organization to keep the reader focused all the way.
