Close Reading

The art and craft of analysis

Suzanne Berne article

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

Use the rhetoric triangle Now we can look at her style:

Choices she makes at the word and sentence levels

Analyzing Style

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

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

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 Tropes=artful diction-metaphor, simile,

personification, hyperbole Scheme=artful syntax-parallelism,

juxtaposition, antithesis

Diction Analysis

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

Look at order of the parts of the sentence—subject, verb, object, or is it inverted

What part of speech is more prominent-nouns or verbs

What are the sentences like? Periodic-moving 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

Read Joan Didion’s passage about California’s Santa Ana winds

Look at word choice and sentence structure.

Annotation

Requires reading with a pen or pencil to mark the text. 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

Also called a double-entry notebook 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

Bring in an advertisement to analyze.

JFK Inaugural address 1961

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:

Do the same activity for Obama’s inaugural address 2009

Tropes and Schemes used by Kennedy

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 zeugma