Examination: Close Reading, Annotating, and Contextualizing
Dorothy Todd; Claire Carly-Miles; Sarah LeMire; Kathy Anders; and Melissa McCoul
In order to write about a work of literature, we first need to read it (and perhaps read it more than once). We often think of reading as a passive activity, but for the kinds of reading we do in a college classroom and that lead to writing about a text, our reading must be active and interactive. Active reading means we will be observing the text and making notes about it–jotting down who the characters are and how they relate to one another, what the plot’s trajectory is, where the story is set, and what symbols or other interesting details we may notice along the way. Interactive reading requires that we examine the text while we are reading it and that we engage with it beyond simply recording facts about it. Examination may take a variety of forms, from establishing what historical contexts may have shaped the author’s perspective to questioning the text itself to critiquing it, just to name a few.
Beyond active and interactive reading of the text, we will also begin to make observations in preparation for writing about the text. As part of this process, we will be observing and examining ourselves and our own contexts as we prepare to write. Who do we want our audience to be?
Examining a Text: Close Reading and Annotating
We begin our odyssey first with reading a text, and we want not only to read it but to engage with it, achieving this through a close reading and annotation of the text. When you perform a close reading of a text, you read more slowly than you might, otherwise. You will want to begin to think about themes and threads that run through the work of literature. When you annotate a text, you are interacting with it in writing as you take note of parts of the text that pique your interest or confuse you or that seem like something you’ll want to remember later. You continue your interaction with the text as you begin to identify and consider the significance of any literary elements that that author is using. For example, take a look at the terms provided in the following “Guide for Close Reading.” Table 7.1 provides a partial list of major literary devices, their definitions, and practical examples that demonstrate their meaning.
Table 7.1. Guide to Close Reading Terms
| Alliteration | Many words beginning with the same consonant sound | Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers |
| Analogy | An extended comparison intended to clarify or explain. Because this comparison involves two things that have similarities, analogy is neither simile nor metaphor. | Social media, a kind of Frankenstein’s creature, has taken on a life of its own, with serious consequences that few anticipated. |
| Chiasmus | A grammatical construct that repeats words in reverse order. | “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” |
| Etymology | The study of the origin and history of words | Did you know that the word “suspect” comes from the latin “suspicĕre” which means “to look up to? |
| Euphemism | Giving “pretty” or “safer” names to ugly or scary things | Saying someone “passed away” or “is at peace” to mean they died |
| Hyperbole | Overwrought rhetoric for effect | I have a million papers due today! |
| Metaphor | A comparison of two unlike things for rhetorical effect | The scream of a train pierced the night |
| Metonymy | Opposite of synecdoche, using the whole to stand in for a part | “the White House sent a memo,” when really someone IN the White House did. |
| Oxymoron | Two seemingly contradictory terms in one phrase | “jumbo shrimp,” “civil war” |
| Parallelism | Two terms given equal weight and structure | She was TALL AS A TREE, and STRONG AS AN OX.” |
| Personification | Assigning human attributes to non-human subjects | The moon smiles gently down upon us. |
| Prosody | The up-and-down “melody” of speech or prose | Think of the difference in “melody” between talking to your boss and a dog. |
| Simile | A comparison of two unlike things, using “like” or “as” | The rain was AS sharp AS knives on our faces. |
| Synecdoche | Using the part in place of the whole (pronounced sin-ECK-de-key.) | All hands on deck! (meaning, everybody to work, not “big pile of hands on the deck”! |
Now take a look at a passage (actually, the very first letter in the novel) from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and examine how we have begun to annotate that passage. As mentioned above, we are beginning to interact with the work, identifying interesting literary elements, speculating about what they may mean, and marking particular things that seem to stand out, in order to remember those things later.
| Frankenstein Text | Reader Annotations |
|---|---|
| To Mrs. SAVILLE, England. St. Petersburgh, December 11, 17--.[1] YOU will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.[2] I arrived here yesterday; and my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare, and increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking. I am already far north of London; and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh, I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves, and fills me with delight. Do you understand this feeling? This breeze, which has travelled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my day dreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible; its broad disk just skirting the horizon, and diffusing a perpetual splendour. There—for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding—there; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Its productions and features may be without example, as the phenomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man.[3] These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death, and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. But, supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine. |
1. The novel begins with a letter (so it’s an epistolary novel and written in first person–interesting!). Walton is writing this letter from St. Petersburg, a name that conjures St. Peter the apostle, as well as St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. 2. The very first sentence this character utters contains the words “evil forebodings”--this sounds like foreshadowing to me! Something evil is coming. . . 3. The narrator describes his imaginings as pretty intense here–this might be telling us something about his character that should be noted and remembered? 4. Another reference to “imagination”--is a pattern beginning to emerge?
“Ardent” is an interesting word choice here–I think of this as having to do with passion. |
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These reflections have dispelled the agitation with which I began my letter, and I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven; for nothing contributes so much to tranquilise the mind as a steady purpose,—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. This expedition has been the favourite dream of my early years. I have read with ardour the accounts of the various voyages which have been made in the prospect of arriving at the North Pacific Ocean through the seas which surround the pole. You may remember that a history of all the voyages made for purposes of discovery composed the whole of our good uncle Thomas's library. My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading. These volumes were my study day and night, and my familiarity with them increased that regret which I had felt, as a child, on learning that my father's dying injunction had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark in a seafaring life. |
“Ardour” is a form of “ardent”--notice the repetition here of this idea about feeling passion about one’s work.
Walton is self-educated. |
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These visions faded when I perused, for the first time, those poets whose effusions entranced my soul, and lifted it to heaven. I also became a poet, and for one year lived in a Paradise of my own creation; I imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated. You are well acquainted with my failure, and how heavily I bore the disappointment. But just at that time I inherited the fortune of my cousin, and my thoughts were turned into the channel of their earlier bent. |
Who might these poets be? Mary Shelley’s husband was Percy Bysshe Shelley, and they both were good friends with Byron. Interesting word choice here–”Paradise”--notice that he has capitalized it. This brings to mind Milton’s Paradise Lost. But the Paradise Walton refers to here is a “Paradise of [his] own creation”. . . |
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Six years have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking. I can, even now, remember the hour from which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise. I commenced by inuring my body to hardship. I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common sailors during the day, and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and those branches of physical science from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage. Twice I actually hired myself as an under-mate in a Greenland whaler, and acquitted myself to admiration. I must own I felt a little proud, when my captain offered me the second dignity in the vessel, and entreated me to remain with the greatest earnestness; so valuable did he consider my services. |
Walton is very dedicated, as well as self-educated. |
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And now, dear Margaret, do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose? My life might have been passed in ease and luxury; but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path. Oh, that some encouraging voice would answer in the affirmative! My courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed. I am about to proceed on a long and difficult voyage, the emergencies of which will demand all my fortitude: I am required not only to raise the spirits of others, but sometimes to sustain my own, when theirs are failing. |
Notice how often Walton repeats the word “purpose” in this letter. “Glory” is also an important word in the novel. Both a city in Russia and also a name with symbolic meaning, and there are plenty of archangels in Paradise Lost. |
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I shall depart for the latter town in a fortnight or three weeks; and my intention is to hire a ship there, which can easily be done by paying the insurance for the owner, and to engage as many sailors as I think necessary among those who are accustomed to the whale-fishing. I do not intend to sail until the month of June: and when shall I return? Ah, dear sister, how can I answer this question? If I succeed, many, many months, perhaps years, will pass before you and I may meet. If I fail, you will see me again soon, or never. |
“fortnight”=two weeks |
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Farewell, my dear, excellent Margaret. Heaven shower down blessings on you, and save me, that I may again and again testify my gratitude for all your love and kindness. |
Annotating the text helps you think more deeply about the work, and your notes can be extremely useful, providing placeholders, reminders, or signposts for you to return to as you read, when you discuss, and when you begin to engage in the initial stages of discovering and exploring what others have said about the work. Any valid argument (whether spoken aloud as part of a class discussion or written as an essay) about a work of literature should be grounded in its text. You will need to support your points with specific quotations (or summary or paraphrase), and those points will need to be valid not only with the use of specific textual material but also with the entire story taken into consideration. In other words, the better you remember specific places in the text that strike you, the better you’ll be able to think about how they work within the text as a whole.
In one of the annotations above, for example, the reader notices that the word “Paradise” is not only used but also capitalized; further, the reader takes note of the meanings of the word “Archangel.” These will be points that may prove useful to remember as the reader progresses through the novel.
The reader above also notices that the novel begins with a letter written by a man named Walton to his sister. When we initially think of Frankenstein, Robert Walton does not usually pop immediately into our minds, but this is a significant framing device for this novel and one to which we want to pay a great deal of attention. We soon find that the bulk of the novel is Victor Frankenstein’s narration of his story to Robert Walton and that Walton then records Frankenstein’s words and shares them with his sister in his letters to her (thus making Frankenstein an epistolary novel). How does realizing that Frankenstein’s account has been transcribed (faithfully? Or with the introduction of human error or bias?) by another character change our perception of the novel?
Examining Your Context for Writing
In addition to interacting with a text through your annotations, you will also begin to think about various elements necessary to begin to write about that text. You should read closely any assignment prompts your instructor may have provided and think about what those instructions require or suggest. You will also consider who your own readers (your audience) will be. How do you begin to identify your audience? Who will be reading your work and why? The most obvious answer in a classroom is that your audience is your instructor, but don’t stop there. Your instructor is part of a whole field of scholars and students who are thinking, talking, and writing about literature.
While your instructor and classmates are obviously a part of your audience, be sure to think of your writing as part of a larger conversation. Writing occurs in response to and in conversation with many other people and their ideas. If you are asked to find a scholarly article on a particular work or author and then write a response to that article, you’ll find yourself in conversation with that article’s author (and the authors that that author has conversed with/used within their article). Just as you may agree or disagree with classmates and your instructor, when you are reading scholarship you’ll find arguments with which you agree or disagree, or that you want to qualify in some way.
Examining your audience constitutes just one of the recursive steps in the reading, researching, and writing process. You will think about your audience, who they are, and how to reach them many times along the path to producing a literary essay, so bear this in mind both here, at the outset, and when you begin to research and then again when you begin to draft your essay.
Attribution: Carly-Miles, Claire and Melissa McCoul. “Examination: Close Reading, Annotating, and Contextualizing.” In Marvels and Wonders: Reading, Researching, and Writing about SF/F. 1st Edition. Edited by R. Paul Cooper, Claire Carly-Miles, Kalani Pattison, Jeremy Brett, Melissa McCoul, and James Francis, Jr. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2022. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Todd, Dorothy. “Writing a Literary Essay: Moving from Surface to Subtext: Introduction.” In Marvels and Wonders: Reading, Researching, and Writing about SF/F. 1st Edition. Edited by R. Paul Cooper, Claire Carly-Miles, Kalani Pattison, Jeremy Brett, Melissa McCoul, and James Francis, Jr. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2022. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
A method of reading and writing the relies on drawing argumentative claims from small features of text such as word choice or punctuation.
A note clarifying the meaning of a text, often written in the margins.
A text composed of letters exchanged between characters.
