READING AND TAKING NOTES FOR ANALYSIS
In order to work towards this essay, it’s important to make sure that you are reading and
taking notes for analysis. In this handout, I’m going to talk about two reading and writing
strategies that will help you write Discussion Post 3 and Homework 1, but you can use both
of them throughout the quarter for analysis and synthesis assignments.
Strategy 1: Notice and Focus
The “Notice and Focus” strategy is also sometimes called close reading, and it entails
zooming in part of the text to do a careful, sustained reading of that detail. Notice and focus
asks you to become a bit obsessive about one or two things—to read them until you begin
to understand that piece of text in a deeper way, integrating into your own knowledge or
consciousness.
For Discussion Post 3, you will “zoom in” on two different parts of the text in order to
practice this strategy.
The first step entails noticing—and taking notes. For advise on taking detailed notes, read
the example of annotation on pages 5-6 of 50 Essays. Notice that this person is taking notes
on things that may or may note be important. In the “noticing” step, you’re not yet ranking
information, just reading carefully.
In the second step, you choose a detail to use as your primary focus—that detail may be a
word, a sentence, a group of sentences, or a paragraph. Read that part of the text over to
yourself, read it aloud, and think about how the writer has constructed it and why it’s so
significant. By asking the how and why questions, you’re beginning the process of analysis.
Strategy 2: The Method
The Method will be used for Homework 1, but it’s a long process, so I recommend
beginning it now!
** Adapted from Rosenwasser and Stephen, Writing Analytically. New York: Wadsworth
Publishing, 2006.
This is one of my favorite analysis “tricks,” and it’s one that I rely on extensively in my own
writing and analysis. I will ask you to do “The Method” many times during the quarter, so
hold on to this! You will need to go through all of the steps of “The Method” before
completing Homework 1. Although this is time consuming, it will allow you to discover
insights about the text that would not be possible without it.
Step 1: Charting Exact Repetition
“Locate exact repetitions—identical or nearly identical words or details—and note the
number of times each repeats. . . .Concentrate on substantive words, although sometimes
seemingly unimportant words such as “and” become interesting when they begin to repeat
a lot” (46).
For step one, choose one of the essays (the one that you’re most interested in writing about
for Essay 1) and chart at least 3 exact repetitions that you find in the essay. Make a note
of every time a word is used.
Step 2—Locate themes or “strands”
* “Locate repetition of the same or similar kind of detail or word (strands) and name the
connecting logic. A strand is a grouping of the same or similar kinds of words or details.
(For example, polite, courteous, mannerly and accuse, defense, justices, witness are strands) .
. . Simply listing the various strand that you find . . . will go a long way toward helping you
discover what is most interesting and important for you to address. But to use the
discovery of strands as an analytical tool, you have . . . to name the common
denominators that make the words or details in your list identifiable as a strand . . .
(46). (my emphasis)
For the first homework assignment, find linked words or ideas that reappear throughout
the text. Chart at least 2 of these strands and name them. For example, you might
identify the second strand above (accuse, defense, justices, witness) as “law” or use a version
of one of the words mentioned (“justice” or “accusation”) to name the whole strand.
Step 3—Locate binary oppositions (opposites)
* “Locate details or words that form or suggest binary oppositions [or pairs of words that
are theoretically opposed to one another], and select from these the most important ones,
which function as organizing contrasts . . . When looking for binary oppositions, start with
what’s on the page. List words and details that are set in opposition to other words and
details. Gradually move to implied binaries, but keep these close to the data. Images of
rocks and water, for example, might suggest the implied binary permanence/
impermanence or the binary unchanging/changing” (46).
For the homework assignment, chart at least 2 binary oppositions (or pairs of opposites)
that exist in the text and list some examples of where they occur throughout the text.
For these personal narratives, such binaries might be ideas such as “silence/speech.”