How To Write A Close Reading Of A Short Story . Understand the structure and goal of your short story. Although this flash fiction piece only has 944 words, it has all the components of successful. Pin on Writing prompts from www.pinterest.com You may focus on a particular passage, or on the text as a whole. But most essays, especially academic essays, begin with a close reading of some kind of text, a painting, a movie, an event, and usually with that of a written text. First, you should summarize the text through your identification of its rhetorical situation or context including author background, purpose, audience, occasion for writing, medium type, and key terms used.