1. The art and craft of analysis
Close Reading
The art and craft of analysis

2. Suzanne Berne article
Premise—her visit to World Trade Center—Ground Zero, several months after 9/11
Appeared in NY Times travel section in April 2002
Her trouble getting a ticket to the official viewing platform

3. Berne article discussion
Use the rhetoric triangle
Now we can look at her style:
Choices she makes at the word and sentence levels

4. Analyzing Style
Tone, sentence structure and vocabulary make up an author’s style
Style contributes to the meaning, purpose and effect of a text, whether visual or written

5. Berne Why is the first paragraph one sentence?
In that paragraph, why does Berne call the empty space “the disaster”?
Why does the third sentence begin with Gathered rather than firefighters?
What examples of fig. language appear in the fourth paragraph?
Does the word huddled in the fourth paragraph remind you of anything else?
What is the effect of the dashes in the final sentence?

6. Style When we talk about an author’s word choice, we mean diction
When we look at an author’s sentence structure, we mean syntax
Style is a matter of tropes and schemes
Tropes=artful diction-metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole
Scheme=artful syntax-parallelism, juxtaposition, antithesis

7. Diction Analysis
Look at important words in the passage—verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs—general or abstract: specific or concrete
Important words—informal, formal, colloquial or slang
Non-literal or figurative language

8. Syntax Analysis
Look at order of the parts of the sentence—subject, verb, object, or is it inverted
What part of speech is more prominent-nouns or verbs
What are the sentences like? Periodic-moving to something important at the end or Cumulative-adding details that support an important idea in the beginning of the sentence
How does the sentence connect its words, phrases, and clauses

9. Practice Read Joan Didion’s passage about California’s Santa Ana winds
Look at word choice and sentence structure.

10. Annotation Requires reading with a pen or pencil to mark the text.
If you cannot write in the book, because it is not yours, then use post-it notes or a reader’s notebook.
Identify the main idea-thesis statement and main points-also look for imagery and details.

11. Dialectical Journal Also called a double-entry notebook
Represents a visual conversation between the text and the reader
Note taking para Note making
Collecting these bits of information from the text and considering their impression on you prepares you to attack the text and pick it apart

12. Assignment
Bring in an advertisement to analyze.

13. JFK Inaugural address 1961 Read the first time to gather information
On the second reading-conversation with the address
Use the rhetorical triangle and appeals
Answer questions on board about diction and syntax

14. Assignment:
Do the same activity for Obama’s inaugural address 2009

15. Tropes and Schemes used by Kennedy
Alliteration
Allusion
Anaphora
Antimetabole
Antithesis
Archaic diction
Asyndeton
Cumulative sentences
Hortative sentences
Imperative sentences
Inversion
Juxtaposition
Metaphor
Metonymy
Oxymoron
Parallelism
Periodic sentences
Personification
Rhetorical questions
zeugma