1. AP English Language and Composition
The Language of Composition Chapter 2: Close Reading: The Art and Craft of Analysis
AP English
Language and Composition

2. Close Reading
Close Reading is the process of analyzing a text at the diction level to develop a greater understanding.
Deeper understanding is derived from the connotative meanings of these words.

3. Close Reading
Writing about close reading reverses this process, starting with the deeper understanding and then supporting that understanding by addressing the “smaller details,” via the words used.

4. Close Reading
Close reading is an instinctive process that we undertake daily.
In a personal conversation, we always ask ourselves:
“What’s his purpose?”
“What’s she after?”

5. Close Reading We take into account the context of the situation.
Has anything significant just happened to prompt the conversation?

6. Close Reading We take into account more subtle elements: Body language
Facial Expressions
Gestures
Tone of Voice

7. Close Reading
Close Reading requires a return to the Rhetorical Triangle.
These elements help establish Ethos, Logos, and Pathos with the audience.
Audience
Speaker
Subject
Ethos
Logos
Pathos

8. Analysis of Style
Understanding style provides insight into the choices the author makes at the diction and syntax levels.

9. Analysis of Style
Style is the author’s use of tone, sentence structure, and vocabulary.
Style can be divided into two categories:
Tropes = use of diction.
Schemes = use of syntax.

10. Key Questions for the Analysis of Diction
1. Which of the important words in the passage (verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs) are general and abstract? Which are specific and concrete?

11. Key Questions for the Analysis of Diction
2. Are the important words formal, informal, colloquial, or slang?
3. Are some words non-literal or figurative, creating figures of speech such as metaphors?

12. Key Questions for the Analysis of Syntax
1. What is the order for the parts of the sentence? Is it the usual (subject-verb-object), or is it inverted?

13. Key Questions for the Analysis of Syntax
2. Which part of speech is more prominent – nouns or verbs?

14. Key Questions for the Analysis of Syntax
3. What are the sentences like?
Are they periodic (moving toward something important), or
Are they cumulative (adding details that support an important idea in the beginning of the sentence)?

15. Key Questions for the Analysis of Syntax
4. How does the sentence connect its words, phrases, and clauses?

16. Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical analysis is understanding how the author connects the speaker, subject, and audience, and why the author makes the stylistic choices he/she makes.
Audience
Speaker
Subject

17. Rhetorical Analysis
Close reading is about identifying techniques and strategies (diction and syntactical choices), but it is also about understanding how these choices help to achieve the author’s overall purpose.

19. Types of Close Reading
Annotation is a process of note taking in the text or on post-it notes in the margin of the text.
It’s the process of recording your inner discussion with the text.

20. Annotations Here’s what to do: Circle unfamiliar words
Identify main ideas: thesis statements and topic sentences
Identify words, phrases, or sentences that appeal to you or that confuse you

21. Annotations
Look for figures of speech, tropes, schemes, imagery, and/or details
Identify contradictory phrases
Jot down questions or comments about the text