Textual Analysis Exercise Literature & Language Essay

For this exercise, you must complete two tasks in this order:
Write an extensive close reading analysis of 1 - 3 passages you have selected from our first reading, Naomi Klein’s Hot Money;
Once step one is completed, draft a position statement of 1-3 sentences;
Revise that position statement into a thesis statement.

The purpose of this exercise is to begin developing the skills needed to find “dense with meaning” passages that can sustain an argument across multiple paragraphs and pages. This exercise then requires you to transform your close reading (looking at your annotations) into analytical writing of your own. This exercise should also help show how a strong thesis develops organically from close reading analysis.

As a whole, your TAE should accomplish the following:

Select 1-3 idea-rich quotations or passages from the text. Each analytical paragraph you write should contain at least one quotation from the text.

Develop a strong analysis (not summary) of the ideas found in the passages by reading them closely and unpacking their meaning. Keep in mind that analysis is different from summary. A summary is a retelling of the author’s ideas that does not introduce your own original thoughts or interpretations. On the other hand, an analysis dissects the ideas, thoughts, and concepts found in the passages and formulates an original interpretation of them – i.e., doesn’t just tell us what Klein already said. As we will see later in the term, sometimes summary is useful but an ideal ration of summary:analysis in an expository paper is 90:10 analysis to summary/quote.

As you analyze the passages you select, pay attention to the key terms/concepts that the author is using and the themes they are exploring/communication to you, the reader. Think about how these terms, concepts, or themes could be useful (as position, as topic sentences, as a way to structure the paper, etc.) that could be useful for developing and organizing your own argument for the first paper.