All good arguments draw their strength from strong textual evidence and analysis. This exercise has two parts. In the first, which can be done for homework, students select passages from shared readings, closely analyze them, and then examone their responses for key terms. In the second, which is an in-class exercise, they use key terms to shape their essay’s argument.

Objective

to strengthen your close reading skills of an exhibit source, so that your analysis may help to shape a larger argument; to generate a research question; to use key terms to help shape and complicate a claim

Key Terms

research question; claim; acknowledgment and response

Part 1: Close Reading

  1. Select language from one of our texts that you find worthy of close exploration: something that defies easy understanding or something our class discussion did not fully cover. The language could come from a character or scene description, a figure of speech or analogy, a section of dialogue, a recurrent pattern or motif, or some other aspect of the narrative.
  2. Underline and annotate the text that you intend to quote in your analysis. In order to avoid reproducing class comments, please be sure your passage is not one we already discussed.
  3. Type up the language you plan to analyze and cite the quotation(s). Write a sentence or two explaining where the language comes from in the narrative and be sure to provide a page number (or numbers) for the quotation(s).
  4. Analyze the language of your selection. You might consult the Oxford English Dictionary or look up historical, literary, or scientific allusions. Be sure to cite where you get any information not assigned in class.
  5. Choose 5-6 words in your close reading to put in boldface. Look for words that recur and/or that are complicated, rich, and raise provocative questions.

Part 2: Key Terms of Argument

Consider the role of key terms in your argument as you work toward a claim:

What are key terms?

Key terms are words that will appear in your essay title, claim, and body paragraphs. You come up with them because they emerge from your selected evidence and analysis of passages. If you have changed focus from that exercise, you will need to create new key terms for your draft. Key terms might be viewed as shorthand for the claim and as signposts for your reader in the body paragraphs, especially the topic sentences. You can use synonyms for your key terms to avoid sounding repetitive; however, the synonyms should not alter the meaning of the original key terms significantly. See Turabian for more information on key terms.

Example of key terms
  • Research Questions: Why must citizens be equal before “God and the law” in “Harrison Bergeron”? Hasn’t the USHG done away with religion?
  • Provisional Claim: Based on my evidence, I argue not only that religion poses a potential threat to the State but also that Diana Moon Glampers and Harrison Bergeron try to become gods in the narrative.
  • Key Terms: “God,” “religion,” “threat,” “State,” and “apotheosis.” Even though the last term does not appear in the claim, that might change once I’ve written the draft. “Become a god” is a paraphrase of “apotheosis.” I might also specify “religion” in my analysis.

Write answers to the following questions (before you begin your draft) and be ready to discuss them in groups or as an entire class:

  1. What is my central (and arguable) question (this is your research question)?
  2. What is my answer to that question (this should be your claim)?
  3. How can I acknowledge and respond to alternatives/complications to the claim (acknowledgment and response)?
  4. What are the central key terms of the claim?
  5. Does my analysis (from Part 1: Close Reading) contain the key terms? Which other terms from that exercise might I add to my claim?