Inquiry One Handout
Close Reading and Analysis
Purpose: Close reading is the practice of thoroughly understanding and critically engaging texts. As you participate in a close reading of a passage from the short essay, you will develop questions for inquiry and engage in a recursive process of textual interpretation, enabling you to develop larger arguments about the meaning(s) of the story as a whole. This process of close reading will also connect to writing practices through the course, as a consideration of the interplay between reading strategies and writing practices (both meaning-making processes) will inform how we read other’s texts as well as our own texts.
The Text: “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
Zero Draft: Inquiry Question (in class)
Annotation (500 words) of “A Modest Proposal” (due 2/7 in class)
For this assignment you will annotate your text using footnotes or bubble comments (in Word) focusing on how the various elements at work in the text address the inquiry question you are exploring. Your annotation should critically engage with the text, devoting attention to patterns, word choice (and meaning), the use of figurative language and rhetorical devices, the text’s structure and organization, the tone and narrative voice, etc.
^100 points
Close/Critical Reading Essay(750-1000 words)
This essay will take your annotation and your proposal inquiry question and merge them into a refined, critical analysis. Because of the short length of your paper you might choose to focus on only a specific passage from the short story or a few lines from the poem, if you choose this text. Your essay should engage with the text in an insightful and thoughtful manner and be focused. It should utilize the literary terms and examples we have reviewed in class.
This essay should be submitted with a writer’s letter that explains your reasons for choosing the text, how you practiced close/critical reading, and explain how a person reading your essay could achieve a deeper understanding of the primary text.
^100 Points
Rough Draft due 1/29 in class
Final Draft due 2/9 midnight in Drop Box on Niihka