Close Reading Techniques and Tips from Poet Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in the history of the United States. Raised in Los Angeles, California, Amanda started writing at the age of five. At fourteen, she joined the Los Angeles–based creative writing nonprofit WriteGirl, where she learned to conduct close readings of poetry and workshop her own early poems.

Her time at WriteGirl gave her the confidence to translate her voice to the page and project it publicly, which led to her eventual naming as first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate. At age twenty-two, she arrived on the national stage when she performed her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.

Close reading is a focused analysis where you note the structure of a piece and the author’s word choice. In the close reading of a text, you consider the writer’s syntax (the arrangement of words within a sentence structure) and diction (the careful selection of words to communicate a message or establish a particular voice or writing style) as well as the overall form, themes, and key ideas. Close readers analyze the narrative arc while also investigating each line to get a deep understanding of the text on the sentence level, paying close attention to how the author uses figurative language, imagery, and other literary devices.

According to Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, by closely analyzing a complex text, you can:

1. 1. Improve your writing: By developing your close reading skills, you’ll improve your reading comprehension and critical thinking while sharpening your craft and deepening your understanding of technique. Amanda says, “As a writer, when you read, that is one of the main ways in which we hone and enhance our craft.”
2. 2. Find your voice: Amanda believes that the close reading process helps you develop your own point of view and style. She says it is “one of the key ways in which you can recognize who you are as a writer and also who you are not.”
3. 3. Train yourself: For Amanda, close reading is like building muscles. She says, “Close reading is to writers and poets what exercise and training is to athletes.” By examining a work line-by-line, you build “your muscle and brain memory.”

Follow these tips from Amanda Gorman, the youngest US inaugural poet, to develop your close reading skills:

1. 1. Begin with a short piece. Amanda recommends you start with a short story or poem when you first read a text closely. She says a more concise format “gives you a much smaller scope you have to focus on.”
2. 2. Focus on what you like. Amanda argues you can start close reading without prior knowledge of literary devices or story structure—the first step is to note the specific words or imagery that speaks to you. She says, “When you first start close reading, you don't have to do it as a kind of English professor, knowing all of the rhetorical devices. It's more important to pay attention to what sticks out to you.”
3. 3. Keep a handbook nearby. While you can start without background knowledge on literary techniques, Amanda recommends keeping a handbook close by to help you identify these literary devices in the piece. Amanda recommends that you “have a list next to you of three, four rhetorical devices” and then look for them in the text. “Maybe you find just one,” she adds. “But that gives you . . . the intellectual practice of what it means to both see and recognize a master doing their work.”
4. 4. Read a piece at least three times. Amanda believes it is essential to read texts several times. For her, the first time is just “for fun.” With your second read, analyze what the “author’s doing well, what they’re bringing to the page, and what you can learn from them” by noting their use of imagery, tone, or metaphor. When you read the poem or passage a third time, challenge yourself to consider what you might have done differently if you had written it. You can also try to read aloud to a friend to make it more interactive, or if you prefer independent reading, paraphrase a section to get a deeper understanding of the meaning of the text.
5. 5. Think about the author’s choices. As you read, you make inferences based on textual evidence, but by close reading, you look beyond the plot to understand how and why an author told the story this way. Close reading is a form of interrogation where you’re constantly trying to understand (or at least make an educated guess about) the reasons behind each decision the writer made. Amanda believes close reading helps you think deeply about the “rhetorical devices they're using, their voice, their style, their tone, motifs, and themes.”
6. 6. Track favorites in a notebook. While annotation directly onto the printed page is one way to highlight key words or devices you like, Amanda also recommends keeping a notebook nearby. In your notebook, create headings where you list the books and techniques that speak to you. She recommends “keep[ing] a log or a notebook where you write down . . . the names of authors, writers, [and] artists” who speak to “your core.” She says this will create “a list or a registry of your literary ancestors to draw from.”

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