Begin with the passage and the task
Read the assignment and identify the kind of interpretation expected. A passage may be examined within a whole work, a particular theme or a comparison. Keep that context available. Do not begin with a broad message and search only for phrases that confirm it. Read what the text actually says, including the details that complicate your first impression. A close-reading exercise is more useful when it makes the route from words to interpretation visible rather than presenting an unsupported verdict about the entire work.
Notice a feature precisely
Choose a repeated word, contrast, shift of voice, image or structural change that matters to your reading. Explain where it occurs and what surrounds it. A label such as symbolism is not yet an argument. State what the feature contributes and why the interpretation is plausible in context. Avoid treating every detail as a hidden code with one guaranteed solution. The task is to justify a reading from the available text, not to prove that your first association must be the author’s intention.
Connect the feature to an interpretation
Write the reasoning between the quotation and your claim. What does the wording support, and what would be a stronger conclusion than it permits? A short quotation may illuminate a pattern without representing every passage in the work. Use the required reference system and preserve exact wording when quoting. Distinguish narrator, speaker and author where the text and assignment make that distinction relevant, rather than attributing every sentence directly to the person who wrote the work.
Test another reading
Consider an alternative interpretation that uses the same detail and would change your argument. Explain why your reading fits better, or revise the claim if the alternative reveals a limit. Do not invent an obviously weak rival just to make your view appear conclusive. A useful discussion can end with a qualified interpretation. Ambiguity should be examined rather than automatically celebrated or erased; show what remains open and why the wording supports more than one reasonable possibility.
Use context without replacing the text
Relevant contextual reading can help, but it should not do all the interpretive work for you. Explain how it changes the reading of a specific passage. Attribute outside scholarship and distinguish it from your own account. When comparing literature programmes, examine the reading, discussion and writing tasks rather than assuming that enjoying stories is identical to enjoying textual analysis. The course should make clear what students are expected to explain and how their interpretations are assessed.
Draft a close-reading paragraph
Choose a short permitted passage and make one bounded claim. Include a brief quotation, an explanation of its wording and one qualification or competing possibility. Ask whether a reader can follow the inference without already agreeing with your conclusion. Remove labels that substitute for explanation. Compare the paragraph with the assignment’s requirements before expanding it into an essay. The exercise helps you inspect one form of literary work, while a fuller interpretation may still require the whole text, relevant context and further discussion of alternatives.
