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1. The Challenges of Writing About English Literature
Writing begins with the act of reading: When you close read, take an inductive approach. Start by observing particular details in the text.
2. Common Types of English Papers
• A close reading of a single text.
• A theoretically-informed close reading.
• A historically-informed close reading.
• A comparison of two texts
• A response paper is a great opportunity to practice your close reading skills without having to develop an entire argument. Instead, you might use your close reading to raise a question about the text—to open up further investigation, rather than to supply a solution. • A research paper. In most cases, you will receive guidance from the professor on the scope of the research paper. It is likely that you will be expected to consult sources other than the assigned readings.
3. Taking the First Steps: Close Reading Towards a Thesis
• Close Reading Prose
1) Identify a pattern of repetition.
2) Make a list of passages in which the word “heart” appears. 3) Identify the different meanings of the word “heart” and analyze their relationships. 4) Select a “friction-rich” relationship to focus on in your thesis.
• Close Reading Poetry
1) Begin by identifying structures and developments in the text. Look for unexpected developments.
2) Analyze how the unexpected development happens.
3) Reflect on the significance of the unexpected development in the poem as a whole.
4) Parlay the unexpected development into a thesis.
4. Questions to Ask
For Novels and Short Stories
• What is the genre of the text? What are the conventions of that genre, and what do those conventions lead us to expect as readers? Are those expectations always realized? Is there a mix of genres?
• Is the narrator first- or third-person, omniscient or not? What does the narrator’s position suggest about the characters and events depicted in the text? How much do we know about the narrator? How reliable is he or she?
• Does anybody (narrator included) contradict himself or herself? How can we make sense of this contradiction? Does it mark a development, a response to a new environment, or something else?
• Is there a gap in the story—a secret or an event that is never depicted but only alluded to? What is the effect of such a gap on how we read the story? How can we analyze the gap without trying to fill it in?
For Poems
• What kind of poem is this? What is the poem’s rhyme scheme? How does its rhyme scheme structure and dramatize the poem’s content?
• What kinds of relationships develop between rhymed words? Do rhymed words reinforce each others’ meanings or ironize them?
• Who is the speaker? What can we infer about his or her environment? Does his or her mood remain constant throughout the poem or does it change? What are the significant changes of mood and mind in the poem?
5. Tips and Conventions
• Avoid plot summary.
• Use block quotations appropriately.
• Avoid basing your argument on opinion.
• Focus on speakers, not authors.
• Write in the present tense.
• Use MLA style citations.
 
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