Close Reading a Literary Text: Analysis of the Relationship between Form and Content

Assignment Objectives:

This assignment requires that you demonstrate and develop the following skills:

Close reading a literary text

Identifying literary features

Explaining how literary features function to create meaning

Identifying and using appropriate resources to aid your reading of a text

Composing a substantial, well-developed and sophisticated close reading

Each student is required to write an essay that analyzes the relationship between the form and content (i.e. how the text makes meaning). You have one of two options:

1. Review my comments on your first annotation assignment and revise your close reading accordingly. For this option, you will need to significantly expand on and develop your initial close reading while addressing my concerns/comments. In particular, you will need to develop a focused claim or thesis around which you will organize your essay. Please note: you MUST hand in the marked version of your annotation assignment, including the chart, etc., with your close reading. If you fail to do so, your assignment will be considered incomplete and you will receive a zero.

2. Select a short story from the syllabus that you have not written on before (you may also choose to write on The Handmaid’s Taleor The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian if you are so inclined). Re-read the text to determine your argument and select a key passage of at least 6 sentences to annotate, following the guidelines established in the previous assignment. Then develop a chart that links the observations made about that passage to the work as a whole. Once you have completed your annotations/chart, write a close reading essay that analyzes the relationship between the form and content (i.e., how the text makes meaning) of the selected text. As with option #1, you must develop a focused claim or thesis around which you will organize your essay. Please note: You must hand in your annotations (though they will not be graded). If you fail to do so, your assignment will be considered incomplete and you will receive a zero.

As you prepare to write your close reading essay, review chapters six through nine of Writing Essays about Literature. Please note that Acheson uses the term thesis statement to refer to the introduction of an essay, with the concluding sentence of her thesis statement presenting the claim or argument that the essay is organized around.  

As before, you may use any of the resources place on reserve to help you with this assignment but STAY OFF THE INTERNET!! This assignment should be just you and the text as much as possible. If you feel that you need to do additional research to make your argument, please come see me first.

Unlike the previous annotation assignment, when I mark your mini-essay, I will place more emphasis on the validity and accuracy of your readings while still looking for an honest and thoughtful engagement with the text.

Remember, there are multiple valid ways to read/explore texts. Just make sure the text supports your reading and try to develop your response from the text up rather than imposing your pre-conceived ideas onto the text.