• This page gives advice and tips on how to write a good close-reading essay, including several books on close-reading and essay-writing.

 

 

 

The Close-Reading Essay

Here are some suggestions for resources and activities to help you write a good close-reading essay:

• Identify areas of concern or weakness in your essay-writing, and use the “Learning Resources” section of this site to address them
  • attending a workshop on ‘Reading and Writing at University’
  • doing an online grammar exercise
  • going to the Learning Co-op
  • working through exercises on reading and writing at the UniLearning website
• Read or view all set texts carefully, at least twice, and identify particularly rich or interesting passages
• Read about close-reading and how to write close-reading essays: some suggested books (all available from UOW library, either as ebooks or as print books in Short Loans) are:
• On close reading:
  • Celena Kusch, ‘Close Reading: words and forms’, chapter 2 in Literary Analysis: The Basics (2016)
  • Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, Close Reading and Writing from Sources (2014)
  • Terry Eagleton, How to Read Literature (2012)
  • Terry Eagleton, How to Read a Poem (2007)
  • Annette Federico, Engagements with Close Reading (2016)
  • Thomas Newkirk, The Art of Slow Reading: Six Time-Honored Practices for Engagement (2012)
  • Mariolina Rizzi Salvatori and Patricia Donahue, The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty (2005)
  • Annette Federico, Engagements with Close Reading (2015)
• On essay-writing:

• • Helen Sword, Stylish Academic Writing (2014)
  • Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/ I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (2013)
  • Wayne Booth et al, The Craft of Research (2008)
• A step-by-step guide to writing a close-reading essay without a question can be found here, at the University of Guelph’s website.