We perform close readings. I use the verb purposefully as a reminder of how awkward, clumsy, and exhausting the task can be. When we “just read,” we might let the words glide over the tops of our pupils. We might even let some of the words on the page mix with dinner plans, job anxieties, and other high order concerns. But when we perform a close reading, we’re focused on the pages in front of us. Specifically, we are interested in having a conversation with the work. A conversation that might seem one sided at first, but is not. How do I know this? Well, a conversation leaves you with knowing more than you did prior. Right? So then, if you leave a text, after a close reading, knowing more than you did prior, is it not because you had a conversation with it? I think so.

So what does this conversation involve? To be specific, it involves asking the text three questions:

1. What are you, anyway? You have to understand what the text is saying. What is its purpose? What is the main idea? What is the argument? What do the terms mean? What time periods are referenced? What context do you need to better understand this text?
2. Why do you exist? I don’t mean this in a accusatory, why are you even at this party, kind of way. Instead, I mean asking the text why it needs to be. Why is it important to read in a classroom setting? Why is it important to read in the time period we’re in? Why is it important to read it in another time period (past or future)? Why did the author write this piece?
3. How do you exist? You’re a writer and a reader. So you’ll want to ask every text you read how it is able to do what it does. Does it use a lot of “first person sentences?” Is there a lot of testimony after a slew of statistics? In other words, how is the text performing its goals? How is the text able to be “effective?” You ask this to understand the text better. But you also ask this to understand what techniques you might want to borrow for your own writing.

Once we’ve asked and answered these three questions, we’ve performed a close reading. We’re also probably exhausted.