How to Write a Close-Reading Essay?

Essay writing is a skill one needs to master throughout their life, as various things are involved in creating a perfect piece of long-formatted text. 

Thus, you must understand well when engaging yourself with a close-reading essay. It is because, in a close-read essay, you must focus on tiny sub-themes related to literary text: a story or a poem. 

It is a process through which students learn about the inherent meaning of the event that took place in the text. Mainly, it focuses on human emotions like justice, love, revenge, and loneliness, as they are a part of human existence. 

One of the biggest examples is “Mayor of Casterbridge” by Thomas Hardy, which has multiple underlying themes which can be one single essay topic. 

Hence, today’s topic is regarding a close-reading essay. And I will assist you in creating a piece of critiqued writing.  

Ways To Write A Close-Reading Essay

The process of writing an essay generally begins with a close reading of a text. In some cases, you can add your personal accounts, but mostly you have to stick to the observation and knowledge gained from the text. 

Usually, a close reading contains an understanding of a painting, a movie, or a book. Basically, it focuses on the written text.  

Here are a few you need to follow for writing a compelling close-reading essay – 

Observation

First, you need to read the essay properly and find out the facts in the text. Usually, when you read a reader, you observe facts and details present in the written piece. 

Therefore, look out for the passage that strikes and discuss it in the essay.

One of the aims of writing a close-read essay is to determine the rhetorical features, structural elements, and cultural references that direct the article’s structure. 

Therefore, one of the first steps of writing a close-read essay is making observations, which is key to writing a good article. 

Interpretation

In the second step, your job is to interpret your observations as you have to showcase your inductive reasoning in showcasing what you learned from the text. Here you need to explain facts which will lead to the conclusion. 

Simply put, you must move from the specifics to forming a theory. Thus, you need to gather data that will help you in closing the argument you made. Hence, you need to observe carefully before you start interpreting the facts. 

For this, you can use different figures of speech and alliterations that are required to create a good close-read article. 

Annotation

One of the things Harvard professors teach their students is to read with a pencil and then annotate the text. Annotating defines highlighting keywords and phrases that are significant or raise questions. 

Therefore, you need to take notes by paying close attention. This you can begin to think like an author and what they actually mean. This is the first step to move from reader to writer. 

However, teachers often ask their students to think about the text from their point of view, as it will enhance their thinking process and their way of anticipating texts and writing.

So, it is advised to read the text carefully and write down important facts and figures related to the text. 

Look For Patterns

The next thing you need to do is look for patterns in the text, which means finding the similarities, contradictions, and repetitions in the text. This way, you can focus on particular aspects of the book or the story. 

Here you need to use inductive reasoning and try to figure out the importance of the events or reason for their actions. This will clearly indicate what you need to include in the text. 

Further, detailing the language is crucial, as you need to interpret the tone and words they are using during conversations. When you read Shakespeare, underlying meanings are often hidden in every dialogue among characters. 

Hence, we need to sort out the patterns, tones and words used to add depth to the text.     

Besides this, you need to figure out relevant questions related to the text to include in the text writing. Hence, keep the facts close while answering the question in the text. 

This will help you to create a good close-read essay with the right facts and figures. And if you want to get it done by someone due to the complexities of close-read. You can visit the website of Fresh Essays, an essay writing service looking to help students to increase their grades. 

Format Of Writing A Close-Read Essay

Here are a few things you need to add before submitting an essay: you need to know the format of the paper. 

The structure of the essay should include – 

• Introduction, It is the start of the essay, where you must introduce the reader to the topic. For this, you must begin with a hook sentence, and then you should support the evidence with a thesis statement to make a compelling introduction.
• Body: It is the second part of the essay, where you explain the thesis statement in three parts, where each element should present the thesis with facts and figures. You should add statistics to increase the validity of the statement. Further, you should add different figures of speech to improve the quality of the text.
• Conclusion: In the last part, you should explain the arguments added in the body. Then you should explain the points that are included in the text.

Thus, with the right format to write a close-read essay, you must stick to the facts and figures mentioned in the text. It will help the professors to understand where you have taken the text. 

Further, you can add some direct quotes from the text to showcase your understanding. 

Lastly, remember to add citations, as plagiarism is a big issue in the academic field.

The Bottom Line

Close-read essays are a brilliant way to enhance a student’s understanding of a story, text, or poem. Also, it teaches students to improve their critical thinking and proficiency in the language, which is a key aspect as they move up the academic ranks.