Why Is Close Reading Important

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As a student, when I am looking as to whether something is valuable or worth my time, I look at its usability. Will this apply to various situations, or is it only useful as a narrow concept? Applying this question to what I have learned thus far at Carthage College, I have found many lessons to be valuable. Probably among the most so would be Dr. McShane’s Aspects of Close Reading. A quickly growing list, the Aspects of Close Reading serve as a magnifying glass to read deeper into something, to ask the right questions to get at the truth. In our case, this means finding the “hidden doors” in The Iliad. Some of the Aspects include, importance based on temporal order, silence or apparent coincidences in the text, puzzles or anomalies (something …show more content…
It makes the student think about what they wrote or, even better, what they did not write. By using these Aspects, we are able to uncover symbolism found in unexpected places. Random sequences that most scholars would gloss over can now be uncovered to allow new depth and insight into a centuries old work with new context. However, what makes the Aspects truly valuable is their ability to apply to situations outside of literature.
Dr. McShane’s Aspects teaches us how to think critically in class discussions, debates, and lectures. Instead of simply putting your brain on autopilot and jotting down notes you think will be on the quiz, you think about what the professor might be leaving out that is open for later discussion. Repetition of the phrase ‘essay topic’ or ‘quiz’ can give us an expectation of what might be coming next. Deeper thinking allows us to open up new discussions, ‘hidden’ arguments and ideas that others may have over looked. Awakening the latent curiosity within us is what will allow us to grow as scholars and as
…show more content…
McShane’s teaching style. McShane taught us these skills not by scribbling them out on the board, through a handout, or a textbook reading, but as they were discovered throughout The Iliad. He asked questions that revealed the hidden doors too us, then made us find our way back to see how we came across it in the first place. His self-directed style of learning made me want to be involved in the process rather than the result.
He connected with us by almost disassociating himself from what he was teaching. He was not pushing knowledge onto us, as has been done in the past, but rather offered it to us for the taking if we wished. These were things that he learned from experience, not from a professor or a textbook, which made it seem more valuable to us. Just like a personalized gift is far better than one massed produced, or how secrets between friends are far more interesting than scandals in the public

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