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Hello. I'm Eric Gardner, and I'm a Professor
of English at Saginaw Valley State University. There are a wide range of different kinds
of methods that you can use to offer an interpretation of a text, but at the core of all of those
methods is a technique that we call close reading. Close reading is simply a careful,
thoughtful examination of the specific pieces of the text in question. When youre doing
interpretive writing, you want to share the results of that close reading with your readers.
You want to give them specifics from the text, often times through quotation or other forms
of description. In doing that, though, you also want to be aware that you're not just
giving us summary or paraphrase; you want to comment on those examples that you bring
in. You want to help us understand the kinds of things that you see happening and then
you want to offer in-depth analysis. Thus, you want to think about those specifics as
not simply being a kind of evidence; rather, they are tools for exploration, tools for
explaining the kinds of things that you see happening in the text that lead to the possible
meanings that you're arguing about.\ Now within that framework, you'll certainly
see some scholars and some students of literature use specific approaches that are guided by
external questions; for example, questions of class or questions of gender. And when
a group of literary scholars focus on that kind of approach, practice it, hone it over
time and argue about it, come up with some concrete methodologies to go with it, that
becomes what we describe as a critical theory. So we might talk about Marxist literary theory,
or feminist literary theory.\ You'll also notice that some scholars are
fascinated by bringing in details from outside of the text; others, biographies, historical
circumstances surrounding the text, or various contextual factors. Again, all of those pieces
are designed to help us think about the kinds of things that are going on in the text that's
being studied. Often times scholars work with both literary theory and context. But again,
the core of all of that work is close reading, giving us specifics from the text and helping
us think about the text's possible meanings.\ Saginaw Valley offers a wide range of opportunities
as you hone your abilities in this kind of writing, as you learn to do interpretive writing
in literary studies. Professors regularly do one-on-one conferences with students. We
have a very strong writing center that does individual tutorial help. We have a rich library
that offers resources for reading the work of a variety of different kinds of literary
critics. And we have a wonderful group of students in literary studies who are centered
on learning collaboratively and practicing, really interested in these kinds of issues.
You want to emphasize clarity and grace in your prose, because your goal in the end is
to help us to understand, to help readers understand the kinds of things that you see
happening in a text. And you want to remember first and foremost that your goal in interpretive
writing is to participate in a long ongoing conversation, a conversation about texts possible
meanings, and about the ways we might think about literature.\
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