Close Reading Capstone
Your “Final Project” will not be a full-fledged research paper–those projects are typically a bit longer–though it will include all the essential building blocks. The Close Reading Capstone is one such crucial building block. It will directly follow your Critical Voices in Conversation essay and give you the opportunity to add something new and fresh to the conversation. If the CVC captures what “they” say (critics, scholars, theorists), the Close Reading Capstone captures what you say.
This portion of the “Final Project” asks you to zoom in on an important moment or series of moments in your grounding text (it could be a scene, a stanza, or some other element of the text involving character, setting, etc.) and offer a detailed analysis of that moment (or a related series of such moments). A full-fledged research paper would involve many–and extended–instances of such analytical engagement with your text, but this assignment asks you to perform only one such reading. The Close Reading Capstone is the one opportunity you have in your paper to “prove” your own thesis, to provide detailed evidence, and to practice a core methodology of English studies.
You are still allowed to draw on content from your “argument,” “method,” and “background” research, but the focus should be on carefully integrated moments of analysis. This is a great time to practice Hayot’s “Uneven U”–In your analytical paragraphs, begin with a more abstract claim, introduce and set up the scene in its unique narrative or poetic context, provide concrete evidence, and then begin the work of analysis and unpacking as you branch out to a broader claim or takeaway.
Your Close Reading Capstone should be 3-4 pages. It will, in turn, lead directly into your conclusion, where you will gracefully conclude the final project by suggesting the kind of analytical work that remains to be done, and why it is important to continue that work.