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Summary Of Close Encounters By Margaret Gallop

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Gallop's essay is certainly a very interesting piece, and her thesis is very plainly stated. A direct quote from Gallop manages to sum it up very efficiently: “Close reading can thus be a crucial part of our education, the very sort of thing we most need from college. Close reading can equip us to learn, to be open to learning, to keep on learning all our life.” (Gallop, 11) In “The Ethics of Reading: Close Encounters”, Gallop is attempting to convey to her readership that the technique of 'close reading', which she expounds on in great detail throughout the essay, is a form of reading which emphasizes focusing on details, and allegedly offers both a superior understanding of text and empathy with the authors of those texts. Though she may have cautioned her readers away from developing tunnel vision on the main idea of a written piece, Gallop chose to include the phrase 'close reading' forty-eight times in her paper; the level of emphasis she places on close reading makes it harder not to see the main idea of her essay. …show more content…

However, there were several other clues: her constant promotion of the idea of close reading, her long-winded explanations of the purported benefits that close reading offers, and her expanded discussion on the repercussions of choosing to educate students in close reading. This, combined with the nigh excessive use of the term 'close reading' made her thesis appear in flamboyant prominence, which was likely an effective tool in disseminating information about the process of close reading to her audience. However, the importance of this article lies not in how effective it is in propagating the idea of close reading, but in how many of the claims regarding close reading are

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