TERRI'S TIPS FOR CLOSE READING - Terri Senft

TERRI’S TIPS FOR CLOSE READING
What is a close reading?
Class Writing II: MUSIC
Semester: Spring AY 2011-­‐2012
Instructor: Theresa (Terri) Senft
Instructor’s Email: terri.senft@nyu.edu
Close reading is a method for
• Comprehending
• analyzing and
• appreciating the context of a given piece of writing
As a written document, a close reading looks like an “amped up” version of personal
reading notes, designed to help you gain the best understanding of the text you can. In
general, close readings are meant for personal use only. If you desired to make your
notes more formal (say, for teaching purposes) you would call them Reading Notes.
By the end of a close reading, you should be able to:
• Understand by whom and for whom the text was written
• Understand when the text was written (with an eye toward politics)
• Re-­‐‑state the text in your own words
• Provide examples for theories
• Map the structure of the piece
• Understand key vocabulary and catch phrases
• Put the piece in dialogue with other texts
What is NOT included in a close reading?
A close reading is not a summary (that’s a précis); nor is it a series of bullet
pointed sentences (that’s an outline.)
Steps for doing a close reading
1. Consider the context. Teachers put writers on a syllabus for one reason: to
help you think about the class. So what IS the focus of the class for which you are
reading this writer? What is the focus of the WEEK for which this writer has been
assigned?

2. Read the text out loud. No, really. Try for two or three sentences at a time at
first, and work up to whole paragraphs later. Listen for words you don'ʹt know
how to pronounce, because there'ʹs a strong chance you don'ʹt know what they
mean, either. Circle them to look up in a minute. As you read aloud, think to
yourself, "ʺAre these the words I would use to make this point to a friend?"ʺ If the
answer is "ʺno"ʺ (and it generally is), then
3. Re-­‐‑phrase what you just read in your own words. Ideally, type these words
into your word processor for later use as your reading notes. Remember those
words you couldn'ʹt say? Look them up (I generally use dictionary.com because
I'ʹm almost always online.) Translate EVERY sentence in the piece into your own
language for at least the first few pages.
4. Provide examples for everything. As a critical reader, the two strongest words
you have at your disposal are: FOR INSTANCE. If you can provide an example
for every major point the essay is trying to make, you will have understood the
essay. A bonus is that many times, examples COMPLICATE an author'ʹs
argument, which will give you great material to bring in class or in a paper.
5. Recognize and defend yourself against front-­‐‑loaded essays. It is common for
editors of journals to demand that writers "ʺfront load"ʺ their essays, compacting
all the findings and deep thoughts into three or four beginning paragraphs that
get unpacked later in the body of the essay. This is done for the speed of
advanced researchers, not the ease of beginning students. If you find yourself
saying WHAAAAT? over and over again, don'ʹt panic. You are probably reading
a front-­‐‑loaded essay. Instead, gloss (for now) the dense paragraphs and go right
to the first heading in the essay. That'ʹs the beginning of explanation. Read that
through to the end and then the beginning may make much more sense.
6. Think about structure. Theorists make their living with language, and to
understand theory, you need to understand that it is as carefully crafted as
literature. To this end, note how the piece is structured, and organize your own
notes that way. The easiest way to do this is to write down all the headings and
sub-­‐‑headings in an essay, leaving lots of space in between. Then, as you organize
your notes, you will be following the author’s structural logic.
7. Think about language, and make a list of KEY WORDS. Are there any new
words or phrases the writer comes up with? These matter, because they signal
new thoughts that couldn'ʹt be put in old words. Are there any phrases or words
that come up over and over? This repetition is a way of trying to hammer home a
point. Compile definitions for KEY WORDS used by the author, which is a fancy
way of saying vocabularly list. What about the examples the writer uses? How
do they differ from the ones you came up with? Make a note of that, too, and

you'ʹll be working on a potential paper topic while you read, killing two birds
with one stone.
8.Think about argument, and make a list of BULLET POINTS. It'ʹs sometimes
hard to find it, but even the most "ʺcreative"ʺ theorist is expected to make an
argument. To tease the elements of that argument out difficult prose, ask
yourself, "ʺIf I had to summarize this entire essay in five bullet points, what
would they be?"ʺ Somewhere in those bullet points reside both the main and the
secondary arguments of the piece. I will write more about this later because it is
actually one of the hardest part of reading theory, I think.
9. Think about tone. Think about the voice of the writer in this piece. Is it funny,
sad, austere? Does the author talk about him/herself, or is the whole thing
delivered in the third person? If you had to cast this writer as a character in a
movie, how would you dress him/her? Where would s/he live, who would be in
his/her audience?
That'ʹs all the advice I have for close reading. The next advice isn'ʹt technically
about close reading, but can be INVALUABLE for people reading theory. You
need to know that it is possible for you to read someone'ʹs work, put it into your
own words, analyze the language for rhetorical effect, and STILL not quite get
what the writer is saying, simply because you lack the background and historical
knowledge necessary to "ʺget"ʺ the essay in question. Like everyone else, theorists
have their own soap operas, and sometimes you need to know who is delivering
an insult to whom or nothing makes sense. Besides, all gossip is fun, even gossip
about people who have been dead a zillion years, which is why I recommend:
10. Do some cursory research on the author. Go to Google or Wikipedia and
take a general look around. In about fifteen minutes, you should be able to
answer these questions: Who is this person you are reading, and what was life
like in the time they wrote the text in front of you? What is their discipline
(anthropology, sociology, etc. etc.)? Who were they mad at in the academic
world? Who was mad at them? Did they have any love affairs or duels or suicide
attempts worth noting? Also: Were they affiliated with a trend or a school of
thought? Can you summarize that school of thought in a few sentences? If not,
look up the school of thought and read a bit about that.
11. If you are assigned multiple pieces in a week, put the piece you are reading
in some sort of dialogue with other pieces assigned for the week. Because a
juicy subject always has multiple viewpoints, your professor has probably
assigned more than one writer for the week. How does the piece you are reading

"ʺfit"ʺ with the other pieces assigned for the week? Why do you think the professor
put them together the way she did? Again, Google can sometimes help with this.
Try typing two or three of the authors assigned for a week into Google and see
what comes up.
AND FINALLY
12. Stop consuming, start thinking. A good theory class should function
through a dialectic, with students turning ideas over and over again, rather than
absorbing The Truth from on high. This is why teachers think less highly of
students who give "ʺloved it"ʺ or "ʺhated it"ʺ responses to readings than they do
those who take a generative stance, asking "ʺWhat can we learn from this
reading?"ʺ even if that learning is not at all pleasant, agreeable or even morally
defensible in your view. One way to ask "ʺwhat can we learn"ʺ is to hold the theory
up to your mirror of the world to see what reflections and refractions emerge.
From there, you may feel the need to either reconsider what you call reality, or
alter the theory at hand, or a bit of both. Either way, you are thinking rather than
buying, and that'ʹs what makes school different from the mall, even when the
topic is cultural studies.