Transcript Close Reading

Close Reading
The art and craft of analysis
Suzanne Berne article
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Premise—her visit to World Trade
Center—Ground Zero, several
months after 9/11
Appeared in NY Times travel section
in April 2002
Her trouble getting a ticket to the
official viewing platform
Berne article discussion
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Use the rhetoric triangle
Now we can look at her style:
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Choices she makes at the word and
sentence levels
Analyzing Style
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Tone, sentence structure and
vocabulary make up an author’s
style
Style contributes to the meaning,
purpose and effect of a text,
whether visual or written
Berne
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Why is the first paragraph one sentence?
In that paragraph, why does Berne call
the empty space “the disaster”?
Why does the third sentence begin with
Gathered rather than firefighters?
What examples of fig. language appear in
the fourth paragraph?
Does the word huddled in the fourth
paragraph remind you of anything else?
What is the effect of the dashes in the
final sentence?
Style
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When we talk about an author’s word
choice, we mean diction
When we look at an author’s sentence
structure, we mean syntax
Style is a matter of tropes and schemes
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Tropes=artful diction-metaphor, simile,
personification, hyperbole
Scheme=artful syntax-parallelism,
juxtaposition, antithesis
Diction Analysis
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Look at important words in the
passage—verbs, nouns, adjectives,
and adverbs—general or abstract:
specific or concrete
Important words—informal, formal,
colloquial or slang
Non-literal or figurative language
Syntax Analysis
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Look at order of the parts of the
sentence—subject, verb, object, or is it
inverted
What part of speech is more prominentnouns or verbs
What are the sentences like? Periodicmoving to something important at the
end or Cumulative-adding details that
support an important idea in the
beginning of the sentence
How does the sentence connect its words,
phrases, and clauses
Practice
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Read Joan Didion’s passage about
California’s Santa Ana winds
Look at word choice and sentence
structure.
Annotation
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Requires reading with a pen or
pencil to mark the text.
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If you cannot write in the book,
because it is not yours, then use post-it
notes or a reader’s notebook.
Identify the main idea-thesis statement
and main points-also look for imagery
and details.
Dialectical Journal
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Also called a double-entry notebook
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Represents a visual conversation
between the text and the reader
Note taking
para
Note making
Collecting these bits of information
from the text and considering their
impression on you prepares you to
attack the text and pick it apart
Assignment
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Bring in an advertisement to
analyze.
JFK Inaugural address 1961
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Read the first time to gather
information
On the second reading-conversation
with the address
Use the rhetorical triangle and
appeals
Answer questions on board about
diction and syntax
Assignment:
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Do the same activity for Obama’s
inaugural address 2009
Tropes and Schemes used by Kennedy
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Alliteration
Allusion
Anaphora
Antimetabole
Antithesis
Archaic diction
Asyndeton
Cumulative sentences
Hortative sentences
Imperative sentences
Inversion
Juxtaposition
Metaphor
Metonymy
Oxymoron
Parallelism
Periodic sentences
Personification
Rhetorical questions
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