Close-Reading Routine

Year 11 ATAR Literature • Combined revision • Close reading

Close reading is a repeatable sequence, not a talent. Use the same five steps for poetry, short fiction and novels, and adjust the kind of evidence you look for.

The five steps

Step	Question	What to write
1. Locate	Where does this passage sit, and what happens before and after it?	Its place in the text and why this moment matters.
2. Observe	What do you notice at the level of word, sentence, image, sound or punctuation?	Two or three specific details, not a paraphrase.
3. Name	What technique or structural choice is it? If you cannot name it, describe it precisely.	A term only if it helps; otherwise a clear description.
4. Explain effect	What does it make the reader notice, feel or expect? How?	An explanation that connects the choice to the reader's experience.
5. Link	What does it contribute to the whole text's argument or pattern?	A claim that matters beyond the single passage.

Worked example: Lawson, "The Drover's Wife"

Lawson's opening describes "bush with no horizon, for the country is flat" and repeats the word "bush".

Step	Annotation
Locate	The opening description, before the snake arrives. It establishes the world the family lives in.
Observe	The repetition of "bush", the flat country, the absence of a horizon, the negative phrasing.
Name	Repetition, negation and a flat, unbroken sentence rhythm.
Explain effect	The landscape feels endless and enclosed at the same time. There is nowhere to look and nowhere to go, so isolation becomes spatial rather than merely emotional.
Link	The description supports the story's concern with endurance: the house is a fragile boundary against a world that cannot be escaped, only survived.

What to look for in each text group

Text group	Look for
Romantic Poetry	A turn, a repeated sound, a loaded image, a shift in address, the form of a stanza.
Australian Short Stories	A detail of setting, a voice, a comic or violent turn, an ending that refuses comfort.
Picnic at Hanging Rock	A gap in the record, a description of the Rock, a shift in point of view, an image of the school.
Oryx and Crake	A brand name, a memory, a shift between tenses, an invented animal, a moment of ethical choice.

From observation to claim

Move	Example
Observation	Lawson repeats "bush" and removes the horizon.
Effect	The setting feels both endless and enclosed.
Claim	The story makes isolation a condition of the landscape, not a temporary feeling.

Common errors

Technique spotting. Naming a device without explaining what it does.
Paraphrase. Rewriting the passage instead of analysing it.
Quote dumping. Using a long quotation and letting it speak for itself.
Ignoring structure. Treating a passage as if its position in the text did not matter.
Overclaiming. Turning one detail into a claim about the whole text without checking the pattern.

Use the poetry, short-fiction, Picnic and Oryx pages to choose passages for practice.