Close Reading

The first chapter of Francine Prose's book Reading like a Writer is titled Close Reading.

She says we have to read word by word and sentence by sentence.

I asked myself what Close Reading really meant.

I searched the internet. I found a lot of answers.

Here are some principles that you can practice in order to do Close Reading. Some are from the internet and I practice them while reading a book and some I came up with by myself.

Close Reading is reading a text multiple times to understand it. I have practiced this and this works. The more times you read a text the more deeply you understand it. Reading several times also helps in memorizing the text.

Talk about the text. You could discuss the text with someone who is also reading the same text.

Learn new vocabulary from the text. Find out the meaning of unfamiliar words. After finding out the meaning try to understand the meaning of the text. Also underline the words you don't know the meaning of if it is your own book. I try to practice this.

Write about the text. I journal about what I read. Sometimes a text or book is very dense and all I remember is one or two sentences but I have spent an hour or two on it. Under such circumstances if it is a good book then keep reading.

Find connections between ideas in the text. Connections means-- this reminds me of.

Find connections between ideas in the text and with other texts. Like something reminds you of something else you have read before.

Find connections between ideas in the text with popular media.

What portion of the text resonates with you? Underline portions that seem interesting if it is your own book.

Eg: I really liked descriptions of Quantock hills in Biographia Literaria and the poem about Pixies. I liked allusions to Greek mythology in Shakespeare's plays.

Why do you like a certain paragraph or a certain sentence. Eg: I liked the chapter on Close Reading because I I wanted to know more about it because I vaguely remembered studying this.

Try to summarize the ideas in the text with your own words. I try to do this sometimes when I journal. While you journal ask yourself:

a.What is this mostly about? If it is a story know characters and plot. If is an essay know what the theme is.

b.Give evidence from the text to support your idea about what the text is about.

This is almost the same as

using the text as a writing prompt.

Base your response on previous knowledge or what you think.

Use specific details from the passage in your response.

Reading is thinking. This is an idea I found in the internet. It is true because when you read you are also trying to understand and that is thinking.

Read the text slowly at least once. This is very important according to me. Quality over quantity is important to keep in mind. It is better to read 10 pages slowly that you do understand than 100 pages fast but you have not understood a word. We could have a tendency to race by reading fast especially if it a library book and has to be returned.

Use the text to answer questions. This idea ties into the idea of reading is thinking.

Find out about the author.

Find out about the date they were born and where they were born.

One thing I am doing these days is find out about the authors who were contemporaries of the author whose work you are studying.

I got this from the internet.