Rules of Notice 

Attending to the most important details

Convention—rules of the genre—symbols for literary novels, suspicious people for mysteries, setting in Romantic texts


Key words—"suddenly", "realized", "truth", etc.


Repetition & Italics—Lolita has clues in italics. Words or phrases that are italicized or otherwise set apart from the rest of the text are meant to call the attention of the reader.  MacBeth repeats the word blood over and over. Repeated actions/ideas are meant to attract the attention of the reader and suggest importance.


Explicit highlights by author—this sounds odd, but think about Huck Finn’s first lines about “stretchers.” Twain is explicitly drawing our attention to a central idea in the novel. (“I am telling you” moments in a narration)


Epigraphs—An epigraph is a quote that comes before the beginning of a text and can serve to raise the expectations of the reader about events to come.


Metaphors and similes —The author may use these types of figurative language to draw attention to a certain aspect or idea in the text. Pay close attention to metaphors and similes.


Ruptures—an odd break in tone or narrative; when the turtle crosses the road in Grapes of Wrath (or when a new anonymous voice begins narrating, as in a mystery novel). 


Spacing and line breaks — Pay attention to how the author chooses to break up the text – it may be a signal for a change in the time structure (like a flashback), a change in narration, etc.


Privileged position—Title, subtitles, first lines, last lines, single sentence paragraphs. Titles and subtitles tell us where to focus our attention and provide a core around which to organize our interpretation.  A valid interpretation of a text will be able to incorporate the message or meaning of the first and last sentences (of a chapter or of the work as a whole). Authors often place important information in these positions.

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