Recall Writing Analytically, Notice and Focus

Move 1) Delay your own judgment, especially agree-disagree, like-dislike, etc.

Move 2) In order to define significant parts and figure out how they are related, readers and writers need to train themselves to attend closely to details. Create in order of importance for the features you discover. Avoid asking yourself: “What do you think?” or “What do you like or dislike?” Instead, ask yourself: “What do you notice?” or “What do you find most interesting, strange, or revealing?”

Move 3) A central activity and goal of analysis is to make the explicit (overtly stated) what is implicit (suggested). When readers do so, we are addressing the “So What?” question. Repeatedly asking and answering “So What?” is all in the pursuit of implications.

Remember, the purpose of these things you notice are in the service of reading well, so you see connections between the ideas in the text, in order to have something to ultimately think and write about. So as a simple list of things to be looking for as you read, try annotating these elements:

SIRS: Strange, Interesting, Revealing, Significant

What is strange? "huh?" -- I didn't expect to see that there.
What is interesting? "hmmm" -- I don't know what I think about that.
What is revealing? "oooh" -- seeing connections -- Oh, that's how that works.
What is significant? The "so what" moment.

Move 4) Write down the parts of the text you annotated. Then rank or prioritize, which ones are most significant or relevant.

Move 5) The preceding analytical moves are in service of analysis for thinking and writing. These questions may produce more questions (rather than clean answers). Keep reformulating those questions and explanations and going back to the original text for sustenance.

Video- Discusses how to Notice and Focus on readings through SIRS

Video - Demonstrates SIRS annotation

Video- Demonstrates the Write-up of SIRS annotations for possible further writing use

Word document Write-up What is strange.docx