Inquiry 1: Close Reading Through Footnotes A close reading of a text can reveal things that might otherwise go unseen.

Whats more, these new insights can lead to further understanding of a text as a whole. Your job is to select a passage or scene from a text of your choosing (a short story, book, TV episode, or movie) and perform a close reading through the use of footnotes. You can think of this almost as a readers guide in footnote form. From there, you will write a critical reflection that explores what this passage and your close reading of it reveals about the text as a whole. Inquiry 1 is worth 100 points, or 10% of your overall grade in the course: Rough draft completion and peer response participation: 10 points Footnotes readers guide: 45 points Critical reflection: 45 points Due dates: 2/11: Zero draft 2/13: Rough draft 2/25: Final draft Footnotes Readers Guide Choose a passage from your text that intrigues you or that you find significant. Jot down why you've selected this portion-- This is information might help shape how you approach your critical reflection. Use our methods of close and active reading to notice, notice, notice. Create 10+ footnotes for your passage in which you detail what youve noticed. Are there words that need defining? Is there reference to something historical/cultural etc. that you can provide background information on? Is there a prominent images you can highlight and discuss as to what, typically, this image symbolizes? Are there places that exemplify the tone that the author is going for, like humor for example? If youre working with an alphabetic text, please include a copy of the passage and use the footnotes feature in Microsoft Word to create your footnotes (we will go over this in class). If youre working with a visual text, your final document should include either a link to the specific scene on YouTube or elsewhere on the internet, or a description of when the scene starts and stops. So, for example you might write, American Beauty 48 minutes 36 seconds to 51 minutes 02 seconds. OR for example, you might write, Breaking Bad, season 1, episode 1, beginning to 4 minutes 24 seconds. Give me as much information as Ill need to review the scene myself.

Critical Reflection In at least 500 words, use your footnotes to explain your passage and its significance or relation to the meaning of the entire text. This should be written for an audience that has read your text but that may not have read THIS passage as closely as you have. Your goal is to illuminate things for them that they may not have noticed when they read this text themselvesthey want to know how to read the text as you did, and how you achieved your insights.