Skip to Main Content

LIT 280: PimaOnline (Sovak): Getting Started with Close Reading

This guide supports LIT 280 students with close reading strategies, literary theory resources, and help finding and citing scholarly criticism.

What is Close Reading?

Close reading is a critical practice that literature students develop throughout their studies, focusing on the detailed analysis of texts. It involves examining the relationships between words and understanding how these connections enhance reading pleasure and unlock complexity within literary works. David Greenham's "Close Reading" emphasizes the importance of this methodology across various genres, including poetry, novels, and drama, while addressing fundamental questions about its significance and application . 

In educational settings, particularly in elementary and secondary classrooms, close reading is seen as a powerful tool for fostering independent reading skills. "Close Reading in Elementary School" provides practical strategies for teaching close reading, emphasizing the need for scaffolding to support students of varying abilities. It outlines methods for selecting texts, facilitating discussions, and assessing comprehension, thereby equipping students with the skills necessary to navigate complex texts in their daily lives .  Similarly, "Close Reading in the Secondary Classroom" offers guidance for educators on implementing close-reading strategies to enhance literacy and critical thinking among high school and middle school students . 

The theoretical underpinnings of close reading are explored in "Engagements with Close Reading," which discusses various critical approaches to literary analysis. This work highlights the balance between immersion in a text and objective dissection, encouraging students to articulate meaningful responses while considering the text's aesthetic and historical dimensions .  John Guillory's "On Close Reading" delves into the historical context of the practice, questioning its definition and the intentions of early critics who popularized it. He presents close reading as a methodical procedure that is best learned through demonstration and imitation . 

In summary, close reading is a multifaceted approach that enhances literary understanding and critical engagement, applicable across educational levels and literary genres.

1. Greenham, David. Close Reading: The Basics. Routledge, 2019;2018;, doi:10.4324/9780203709979.

2.  Sisson, Diana, and Betsy Sisson. Close Reading in Elementary School: Bringing Readers and Texts Together. vol. 1, Routledge, Oxford, 2024, doi:10.4324/9781003409014.

3. Federico, Annette. Engagements with Close Reading. Routledge, United Kingdom, 2015;2016;, doi:10.4324/9781315757759.

4. Flygare, Jeff. Close Reading in the Secondary Classroom: Improve Literacy, Reading Comprehension, and Critical-Thinking Skills. Marzano Resources, Bloomington, Indiana, 2018.

5. Guillory, John, and Scott Newstok. On Close Reading. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2025.

Print Books

Videos