PART I: DUE JANUARY 31, 2018
Close reading is the process of making the implicit explicit.
I’ve designed this assignment so that it teaches you what close reading is and how to do it while you write and produce it. As a result, every step is deliberate and has been thought out.
Please follow all the instructions, and dedicate the time I’ve asked you to to each part of the assignment. Read through the instructions fully before starting step 1. This way, you know what I will be expecting you to hand in. The more time you invest in the process, the easier it will be to write the actual paper in a few weeks. Close reading is as much about the process before you begin writing as it is about what you write.
LABOR INSTRUCTIONS Part I:
LABOR: 125 MINUTES
I’ve designed this assignment so that it teaches you what close reading is and how to do it while you write and produce it. As a result, every step is deliberate and has been thought out.
Please follow all the instructions, and dedicate the time I’ve asked you to to each part of the assignment. Read through the instructions fully before starting step 1. This way, you know what I will be expecting you to hand in. The more time you invest in the process, the easier it will be to write the actual paper in a few weeks. Close reading is as much about the process before you begin writing as it is about what you write.
LABOR INSTRUCTIONS Part I:
LABOR: 125 MINUTES
- (5 minutes): Read the instructions.
- (30 minutes): Pick a passage that’s around one page long from The Reluctant Fundamentalist. You can pick one of the passages you referenced in your post on Monday, or two passages half a page long on various pages.
- (10 minutes): Read the passage three times: once to yourself, once out loud, and another time out loud and very slowly.
- (30 minutes-45 minutes): Make a list of everything you notice or observe about the passage, and categorize these observations into groups that make sense to you and to your passage. You must include these three categories: Verbs, Adjectives, Nouns. You must also have two additional categories that you choose based on what you notice about the passage. Examples of other categories include: military words, street names, gender references, body parts described, words that repeat, words associated with home, words/phrases that foreignize Chengiz, dialogue, numbers.
- (30 minutes): Now you are going to do a free association exercise. This can take any shape that is most conducive to your learning. You can make lists, or visual brainstorm bubbles, etc. Put one of the words that you’ve found important in your activity above, and start to make a list of all the things that you can associate with it. What are its connotations? Make at least five association lists, trains, bubbles. They can be of a single word, of a collection of verbs, or a collection of adjectives, etc. For example, let's say I choose the opening phrase of the novel, "Excuse me, sir." I'd put it at the top of the page, and then think about all that it may suggest, or that I think about when I hear "Excuse me, sir" (even if it has nothing to do with the text). "manners, polite, respect, interruption, distraction, British, customer service, insecurity, apology, someone has dropped something, someone wants to move past someone, authority (sir), feeling of being less than (sir), about to ask for something, intrusion, unwanted, getting someone's attention, etc."
- (10 minutes): Look back at your free association and your passage and begin to consider the questions that come to mind as you notice the patterns. For example, "Why are there so many words that are associated with terrorism in the dialogue he has with Erica?" "What effect does the novel have on us by opening with an interruption."
- (10 minutes): Print your categories/lists, your free association exercise, and your questions. Make sure you've given a reference to your passage. Staple them together. Put your name on it. Hand it in.
PART II: DUE FEBRUARY 5, 2018
LABOR INSTRUCTIONS Part II:
LABOR: 95 minutes
LABOR: 95 minutes
- (5 minutes): Read the instructions.
- (5 minutes): Put your primary passage and your word associations in front of you. Open a new document. Put the question you aim to answer at the top of your document.
- (15 minutes): Set a timer and for fifteen minutes JUST WRITE your thoughts about the book, your passage, your question, the details you notice. Just don't stop writing for fifteen minutes, even if you have sentences like, "I really have no idea what else to say about this passage? My question sucks." If you get stuck, ask questions like, "So what does that say about Jim? Erica?" This is your time to just write freely. Write badly! Go on tangents!
- (60 minutes): You should have something to say about the passage, even if it's not fully formulated yet. Put your free write aside. Don't look at it anymore! You're not revising the free write. The only objective of that was to get your mind warmed up.For one hour, put together a 500-600 word answer to the question you're interested in by using the passage(s) you've spent so much time thinking about. Don't think about this as an academic assignment. Instead, think about as an analytical, creative piece, something you'd read in The Guardian, or The Atlantic. Tell us the story of your mind working through this question. Unpack the details of the text. Make meaning of them. Make what's implicit in the text explicit to us. Show us what kind of reader you are. This is similar to the work we were doing at the end of class on Monday when we looked at the introductory pages of the book. You are thinking about an issue and using the finest details in the text to discuss the issue. You are showing us what a careful reader you are!
- (10 minutes): Compilation
Put your name on the document(s).
Email them to me.
Print two copies of your close reading.
Staple your close reading paragraph to your free write.
We will be reading some of these together as a class over the next two weeks.