How do I do close analysis?

The perfect place to start is by picking a small section of the text that you want to look at that you find particularly interesting, be it a paragraph of a novel or a couple of lines of a poem. Then you need to pinpoint what it is that attracted you to that passage in the first place, it could be the vivid imagery, or that when read aloud the sound of a line is striking. This may seem like a simple step, but it’s the best thing you can do, because it gives you an idea of where to begin, if it sticks out to you then the writer must have done something right! Now it’s time to work out how the writer made it so effective, so take a look at the language they have used. What do the words make you think of, are there any other words that they remind you of when you read them? The thoughts you have just had are your connotations, the things that the writer makes you think about when you read those lines. After looking at the words, you can move to the form or structure that they are in. Are the sentences all the same length or are they varied? If you notice something about the type of sentences, look at the words again and see how the language and structure work together. Both elements impact your experience when reading, so it’s important to show you know how they what effect they create when combined. For example, in a horror novel a series of short sentences could reinforce the suspense that has been created through gothic imagery.
Once you’ve identified both these areas, you get a chance to show off by seeing if anything you have found is a specific literary technique! Finding the word ‘and’ three times in a sentence would be an example of polysyndeton-when a writer uses many conjunctions in a short space of time; or you could call the word ‘very’ an intensifier. This is an opportunity for you to show that you not only know what the effects of language and structure are, but that you understand the theory behind them too. And if you don’t know if something has a specific term, just search online! It’s a great way to learn something new and that way you’ll know for next time. Now you’ve proved you can give an excellent close reading of a passage, but remember to link it to the rest of the book or poem to show how well you know the whole thing. See if the image you’ve found is also used to describe another character and what that link would mean. In the same way language and structure work together, this passage or line works with the whole text, so show an examiner you know how it links to the themes or ideas as a whole!