Find out all you can about a text before beginning to look closely at it.
Where have you encountered the work? Are you encountering it in its original context? For example, an essay in a collection of readings may have been previously published in a magazine; a speech you watch on YouTube may have been delivered to a live or televised audience; a painting on a museum wall may have been created for a wealthy patron in a distant country centuries earlier.
What can you infer from the context (or contexts) of the work about its intended audience and purpose?
What information can you discover about the author or creator of the text?
What purpose, expertise, and possible agenda might you expect this person to have? Where do you think the author or creator is coming from in this text?
What do you know about the subject of the text?
What opinions do you have about the subject, and on what are your opinions based?
What would you like to learn about the subject?
What do you expect the main point to be? Why?
What does the title (or caption or other heading) indicate?
What do you know about the medium in which the work appears? Is it a web text, a printed advertising brochure, a speech stored in iTunes, or an animated cartoon on television? What role does the medium play in achieving the purpose and connecting to the audience?
What is the genre of the text—
How is the text presented? What do you notice about its formatting, use of color, visuals or illustrations, overall design, general appearance, and other design features?