Strategies for Reading and Making Annotations



MR. PERRY - AP LANG

Strategies for Reading and Making Annotations in AP Comp

When you are reading a passage, article, essay or excerpt, you need to read actively and visually. Don’t sit passively and merely let your eyes move across the page. Scientific studies support the idea that active readers gain higher retention than passive readers. Active reading means that you should mark-up key words, phrases, sentences and ideas and then make connections with them by writing notes in the margin.

Visual reading means that you should picture any action of the text; create a movie in your head. Most people are visual learners, meaning they remember more after they have “seen” something, even if it’s in their imagination.

As you work with your text, consider all of the ways that you can connect with what you are reading. Here are some suggestions that will help you with your annotations:

1. Paraphrase the main idea(s) of each paragraph or section.

2. Identify and comment on examples of rhetorical strategies the author uses. Do this for each paragraph. Circle or bracket off the words and phrases that seem important, unique, stylistic, poetic, powerful, etc. Label these words and phrases with any rhetorical terms (from your glossary) that apply.

3. Identify the tone of the writing, and be sure to take note of if, when, and how the tone shifts from one paragraph or section to the next.

4. Identify and define words or slang that you did not know before you read. Make the words real with examples from your experiences; explore why the author used a particular word or phrase.

5. Make connections, which may be similarities OR differences.

• Make connections between one part of the text with another part.

• Make connections to other texts you have seen or read, including books, stories, songs or poems; films; news events, historical events.

• Make meaningful connections to your own life experiences.

• Ask questions about parts of the text you are having trouble understanding.

• Answer questions you have raised if they are answered later in the text.

6. Make comments in response to the author’s ideas (I like/don’t like this because, I agree/disagree with this because). ALWAYS include a “because” clause.

After you have read and annotated, write a response to the text. This is your opportunity to organize all of your thoughts from your annotations into a coherent piece of writing. It is also the place for you to take a first shot at identifying the argument.

Finally, be consistent with all your annotations. Use the same system of circling, bracketing, underlining, and abbreviations with every text. Highlight where in your response you identified the argument.

These annotations strategies will aid your success on the multiple-choice reading sections of the AP test as well as the essay portion.

Sample annotated text:

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