Close Reading Posts

History 117 / Close Reading Post

Due at course website by 5pm, December 12, 2014

 

Objective

By Friday, December 12, students should post a short (1,000 words or less) close reading analysis of an Abraham Lincoln document featured at the new Dickinson website, Lincoln’s Writings: The Multi-Media Edition. A close reading offers a careful summary of the text combined with judicious information about context and thoughtful analysis of subtext.  Students who attempt an audio or video version of the close reading (in addition to the text post) will receive up to 5 points of extra credit.  Late posts will be penalized 5 points per day.

 

Guidelines

  • The Lincoln’s Writings site offers 150 of Abraham Lincoln’s “most teachable” documents ranked and organized for classroom use.  Students are encouraged to find documents on the site that don’t already have close readings associated with them and to try to create a post that might be publishable at the site.  However, any of the 150 documents (including the Gettysburg Address) are suitable choices for this assignment.  Make sure to check out the “Special Topics” section for ideas.

 

 

  • All close readings should summarize and quote from the text of the Lincoln document, put the story of the document into some historical context (relying on other primary and secondary sources), and then wherever possible, analyze the “subtext” of the document, or what Lincoln intended by his words, even if he didn’t say so explicitly.  There are numerous examples of such “close readings” at Lincoln’s Writings, including 25 videos by Prof. Pinsker for the featured documents at the site.  Historian James Oakes also provides a litany of examples of close reading techniques in his book, The Radical and the Republican (2007).  Students are encouraged to use Oakes’s book as one of their key secondary sources.