Why annotate?
You will be a stronger reader and a better writer. Every collected annotated text is a chance at a 100%. You will have something to contribute to discussion when called on. You will have great notes to use when asked to write about the text.
Unlike highlighting, which is a passive activity, the process of annotating text helps you to stay focused and involved. To become a truly active reader, you already know that when you read any text, you should have questions in your mind. As you read, you should be looking for the answers to these questions. Annotation is a kind of self-teaching that--in addition to revealing patterns and meaning perhaps unclear in an initial, surface reading--trains your mind and develops critical thinking that can be applied to any text, and any subject.
While there is no precise measure of how detailed an annotation must be, here are a few basic guidelines and techniques for a successful annotation:
Annotation
Unlike highlighting, which is a passive activity, the process of annotating text helps you to stay focused and involved. To become a truly active reader, you already know that when you read any text, you should have questions in your mind. As you read, you should be looking for the answers to these questions. Annotation is a kind of self-teaching that--in addition to revealing patterns and meaning perhaps unclear in an initial, surface reading--trains your mind and develops critical thinking that can be applied to any text, and any subject.
While there is no precise measure of how detailed an annotation must be, here are a few basic guidelines and techniques for a successful annotation:
- Underline important terms.
- Circle definitions and meanings.
- Research and provide your own definitions.
- Write key words and definitions in the margin.
- Signal where important information can be found with key words or symbols in the margin.
- Write short summaries in the margin at the end of paragraphs, sections, or stanzas.
- Write the questions in the margin next to the section where the answer is found.
- Pose questions to be answered in discussion or by the teacher.
- Indicate steps in a process by using numbers in the margin.
- Look for patterns of language.
- Make note of repeated motifs, dominate themes and literary devices as they apply.
Annotation
- a critical or explanatory note or body of notes added to a text.
- mid-15c., from L. annotationem (nom. annotatio), from annotatus, pp. of annotare "to add notes to," from ad- "to" + notare "to note, mark"
- also called close reading and marginalia