The parts of the paper:
1) The annotation: Create a separate document with your chosen passage on it from Sense and Sensibility written by Jane Austen and then mark it up with highlighting/underlining/circles/arrows and verbal notes. Must include verbal notes so I know what youre thinking when you mark something.
2) The close reading: a short essay in which you develop an interpretive statement about the passage using direct textual evidence (quotations from the passage).
Close reading is not summary or paraphrase. You are writing an analysis. You can have a one sentence summary of whats going on in the plot context for this passage.
Make arguments you can support with the specifics of this passage. Other parts of the novel can be mentioned because they are likely connected to it, but you need to stay focused with your zoom lens on this passage.
Heres what I need in it:
a. An introduction. This can be on the short side: identify the passage (heres a place for your one-sentence summary) and say why it is significant, suggesting some of the specifics youll develop about it. (this is your thesis statement)
b. 3-5 paragraphs in which you discuss how specific aspects of the paragraph create the significance and meanings you found in them. These will definitely need revisiting later, so dont worry too much about how to organize them in your draft. I recommend beginning by working with the chronology of the passage can be effective (in other words, dont begin by commenting on where it ends; start with how it begins).
c. A conclusion in which you comment on how this passage connects to the book as a whole.
