Close Reading Order of Operations:

  • Step 1: Detect a Pattern

In your last post, you jumped right in and tried your hand at close reading. Now that you know a bit more about close reading and what it’s like, we will start to break the process down. Rather than a procedure that involves following a strict set of rules, you can think about close reading as something that adheres more loosely to an “order of operations.” This post concerns Step 1: Detect a Pattern.

Using what we’ve read so far from The War of the Worlds, find two different patterns in the text. Any two patterns. Your patterns might be organized around repetition: repeated words, repeated symbols, repeated metaphors, repeated settings. They might also involve change: how the meaning of a specific image seems to change throughout the text, for example, or how a particular character changes, or how the style of narration changes at a particular point. They might also have to do with the structure of the text: you might notice that certain chapters are organized in a particular way, or that the plot is repetitive or otherwise structured in a different or unexpected way. There are endless possibilities.

Once you’ve detected a pattern, cite 3-5 specific instances of that pattern from the text. This means that I want you to include specific quotes and page numbers from the text in your post. Your task in this post is simply to find two such patterns in the novel. In other words, you’re just making observations here; you are not using these observations to make interpretations. Not yet.

Your post should look something like this when you’re done:

Pattern 1: Description of overall pattern. How are all your pieces of evidence below related?

  • Description of example if needed. Do you need to explain exactly how/why this is an instance of the pattern you identify above?: “Example 1 from text. Notice how I am typing the exact quote as it appears in the text into my post” (page number where I found the quote).
  • Description of example if needed. Do you need to explain exactly how/why this is an instance of the pattern you identify above?: “Example 2 from text” (page number).
  • Description of example if needed. Do you need to explain exactly how/why this is an instance of the pattern you identify above?: “Example 3 from text” (page number).
  • Etc

Pattern 2: Description of overall pattern. How are all your pieces of evidence below related?

  • Description of example if needed. Do you need to explain exactly how/why this is an instance of the pattern you identify above?: “Example 1 from text. Notice how I am typing the exact quote as it appears in the text into my post” (page number where I found the quote).
  • Description of example if needed. Do you need to explain exactly how/why this is an instance of the pattern you identify above?: “Example 2 from text” (page number).
  • Description of example if needed. Do you need to explain exactly how/why this is an instance of the pattern you identify above?: “Example 3 from text” (page number).
  • Etc