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Ways To Analyze Literary Texts
Ways To Analyze Literary Texts
-Any of these questions are a good place to start when you sit down to analyze a text.
- Use your personal reactions to a text to figure out what interests you most, because chances
are, you’ll have the most to say about that topic.
-Read key passages several times, underlining the words that jump out at you.
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- Then ask yourself why you noticed those particular words:
1- Asking yourself why each point you make matters will help you get at that significance.
For example, you might notice that an author uses a lot of repetition in a poem, repeating the
same line over and over.
-So what? The repetition helps make that line really memorable.
- So what? The poem becomes an urgent cry to motivate the reader to take action.
- Identify the theme in a piece of writing, and then ask yourself how the author conveys that
message.
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For example, the theme of a poem might be that love is more powerful than death; the author
might communicate that message through the scenes of the ghost appearing to visit her
husband.
-Considering the effect of the work’s structure can help you be aware of some of the author’s
choices, and the significance those choices might have.