Techniques Used to Peel Back the Layers of Prose Passages
1. Before reading the piece, make a prediction based on the title. *After reading it the first time,
analyze how the title was the same or different from your prediction and how it truly relates to
the passage.
2. Before reading the passage, highlight every other sentence. *This heightens your awareness
of the sentence structure, length, and variety.
3. Read the passage twice—if possible, read it once aloud. *Upon the second reading, mark
and make notations about anything you like, wonder about, or need clarified.
4. Summarize the story of the passage—the who, when, where, what.
5. Determine the points of view, and jot down notes about how they affect the meaning of the
story.
6. Determine the verb tense the author uses, and jot down notes about its effect on the
meaning.
7. Write notes about anything you can connect to the passage—personal experience, other
literature, films, news stories, etc.
8. Circle the author’s interesting diction choices—those places where he/she could have
selected different words (denotation) and that suggest strong associations (connotation).
*Look to see if you can find a pun.
9. On a separate sheet, list these circled words, then provide dictionary definitions for them and
the associations they suggest.
10. Underline the images in the passage—look for imagery.
11. Label the underlined images with which sense or senses each appeals to. (What words
produce memories or pictures of sight (visual), sound (auditory), taste (gustatory), smell
(olfactory), touch (tactile), motion? Many will be combinations.)
12. Jot down notes about the effect of these images in the margin.
13. *At this point, a second, copy of the passage would be helpful. Highlight the figures of
speech (hyperbole, understatement, simile, metaphor, personification, irony, oxymoron)—
you may highlight all of them using one color, or use a different color for each type.
14. Label the figures of speech, or create a key for the different colors. Jot down notes in the
margin or on post-it sheets, discussing the effect of each figure of speech and how it
extends/deepens the meaning of some aspects of the story.
15. Underline the author’s use of alliteration.
16. Make notations explaining the effect of each example of alliteration found.
17. Label the various tones, and write notes discussing these on a separate sheet of paper or on
post-it sheets.
18. Compose several possible themes, or meanings/messages.