Close Reading and Big Picture Reading Strategies | Literature

In this article, you will learn about the two different reading approaches in a work of literature:
close reading and big picture reading strategies.

Have you remembered the show Sesame Street where Grover, a fuzzy blue character,
demonstrates the difference between the concepts of near and far? Grover runs in front of the
camera and shouts, ”Near!” and the he runs away from the camera screaming, “Far!”.

Close reading and big picture reading are two ways of reading a work of literature. The two
approaches use a wide array of strategies to provide different kinds of information or details
about a text.

What is close reading?

Close reading strategy signifies the single and particular. To simplify its meaning, it is looking at
small details in the story, novel or poem and how they are connected to the larger story. Close
attention to word choice, character actions and the symbolic objects are some of its effective
way in which sentences unravel ideas, as well as formal structures.

Readers must become detectives. Like a detective do, it investigates things like repeating
sounds, word choices and figurative language.

To make a better understanding what a close reading means, it is about taking note of small
details and knotting them together to know what that literature is all about.

What is Big Picture reading?

Big picture reading focuses on larger themes or ideas. An example of its ideas are free-will or
fate. Big picture reading allows you to make generalization, see patterns and overarching
themes. These three is used to describe a literature as a whole. You need to take a wider
perspective view of the work of literature.

Looking at the big picture and the smaller details in a work of literature does not change what
the novel, play or poem is all about. We just focus on different things due to our point of view.