What is a Text-to-Text Connection?

A text-to-text connection is a strategy used to determine the relationship and commonalities between what a reader has read in the past to what they are currently reading. Text-to-text connections are one method of analyzing literature. When the reader breaks the writing into separate pieces, they are able to see how they relate to other writings. This deeper analysis of the writing involves a series of examinations that consider aspects of the author, the literary elements of the texts, a well as the reader’s own response to the pieces of writing.

Importance of Making Text-to-Text Connections

Analyzing literature refers to distinguishing its parts and determining how the parts relate. There are various approaches to writing that a reader can examine. These connections help to broaden thinking and support deeper meaning.

How to Make Text-to-Text Connections

There are three steps to making connections between texts. All three involve a deeper analysis of text components. Readers can make these connections individually, in any order, or together as a way to have a richer understanding of a text and its relationship to another. Investigating the text will uncover the similarities and differences between ideas.

The first step in making a text-to-text connection is to look closely at the characteristics of the authors. By comparing characteristics such as race, age, gender, and culture of the author to that of another piece of literature, a reader will have a deeper understanding of their influences.
The second step in making a text-to-text connection is to closely examine the literary elements within the writing. Specific literary elements include setting, character, and theme.
The third element of text-to-text connection occurs when the reader reflects on their own experience in reading the piece. The prior personal experience a reader brings to the writing can alter the way they read a piece.

leave your comment