Close Reading Tips

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CLOSE READING TIPS
By Jessica C. Murphy

1. Read with a pencil in hand and a dictionary close by. Mark words and phrases that stand out as meaningful, confusing, perplexing, and so on. Look up words of whose meanings you are unsure. Write notes in the margin of the text.
2. When working with a narrative, get a sense of the general plot and mark the significant events in the margins so that you can find them easily later. It may also be helpful to paraphrase the action of the narrative in a paragraph, but do not let this be a substitute for another reading.
3. Make connections throughout the text—are there words, phrases, images used more than once? Question these connections—what do they reveal or point to?
4. Who is the author’s audience? What is the tone of the work?
5. You should read a passage at least five times when doing a close reading of that passage. Each time, you will find something new and interesting to analyze.
6. Remember to keep your conclusions firmly grounded in the text, supporting your assertions with evidence in the text.