Close Reading Bingo

Four Common Weaknesses

Weakness: 1. Avoid "he says" quote introductions.

• "His strange admiration is expressed with metaphors like "the free-standing kind: a pair of integral signs swooping upward" and "a temporary, steeper escalator of daylight" which help make a mental picture of the escalators as well as give an appreciation for the escalators." My Everyday Sticky Waffle 

Weakness: 2. Don't use a long quotations the subject of a sentence.

• "'On sunny days like this one, a temporary, steeper escalator of daylight, formed by intersections of the lobby's towering volumes of marble and glass, met the real escalators just above their middle point, spreading into a needly area of shine where it fell against their brushed-steel side-pannels, and adding long glossy highlights to each of the black rubber handrails" By using such imagery and specific details, one is able to clearly paint a picture of the lobby in their minds." TheyCallMeFreshMoney

Weakness: 6. Avoid  the verbs "uses" and "shows".

•  "His use of connotation suggests a picturesque vision of his apperance while walking through the lobby."  T-Rex

Weakness: 8. Punctuation goes inside quotation marks.

• "Baker describes his surroundings as "towering volumes of marble and glass" and "long glossy highlights to each of the black rubber handrails"." To Kill a Mockingjay

Best Diction Analysis

• "In the excpert from the Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker uses an intricate, buisness-like language which helps describe an everyday morning at the office. The connotative figurtive language assists the refined wording by adding descriptive variety throughout the prompt. With the use of his realistic descriptions, the promt was easily visualized. "Towering volumes of marble and glass" is what he saw as the lobby, which creates a clear, yet abstract vision. Writing with a language that is not quite fancy but is elevated, Baker also seems to have connotataion mixed in making his writing clinical, and elaborate." Peanut Butter Without the Jelly