Close Reading and Textual Analysis — Flashcards
Grade 10 · English · Flashcards
Master the vocabulary and methods of close reading and literary analysis for Grade 10 English.
Flashcards
- Close reading
- Slow, precise analysis of a passage's language — word choices, patterns, structures, and tensions — to build an interpretive argument.
- Annotation
- Marking a text as you read (underlines, margin notes) — the foundation step of close reading before interpretation begins.
- Textual evidence
- Exact words, phrases, or passages from the text used to support an interpretive claim.
- Inference
- A conclusion drawn from what the text implies but does not state directly — reading between the lines.
- Textual tension
- A contradiction, irony, or unresolved conflict within a passage — the most productive site for analysis.
- Inductive analysis
- Evidence → argument: building a general claim from specific observations (correct direction for literary analysis).
- Deductive reasoning
- Argument → evidence: starting with a general principle and applying it to specifics (opposite of inductive close reading).
- New Criticism
- Literary movement (1940s-50s) arguing meaning lives in the text itself — biography and author intention are irrelevant ('Intentional Fallacy').
- Ambiguity (literary)
- A word, phrase, or image that carries multiple simultaneous meanings — often the richest sites for analysis.
- Pattern vs. isolated observation
- Patterns across a passage generate stronger analytical arguments than single observations, which may be coincidental.
- Evidence sandwich
- Your claim → exact quotation → your interpretation of how it supports the claim. Never end a paragraph with a quote.
- Observation → interpretation → argument
- The three stages of close reading: what's there → what it suggests → what claim that supports about the text's meaning.
Get a personalized course on Close Reading and Textual Analysis built around your child.