Annotating a Text - SCASD
Annotating a Text
Underlining, Marking, and Taking Notes
Definitions and Purpose
Introduction
Skilled readers use a system of underlining, marking, and taking notes as they read. This handout helps you understand the benefits of developing and using such a system as you undertake your reading assignments in this class.
Basic Definitions
What is annotation?
To annotate is to highlight or underline, mark, and record notes directly on a text, in a notebook, or on post-its as one reads and rereads it. As you read, engage the text by asking questions, commenting on meaning, marking events and the passages you want to revisit, and recording characters and other important fictional elements as you encounter them. This act of actively reading a text and taking notes will allow you to comprehend and remember more of what you read; it will also allow you to refer to specifics within the story with greater ease when you write about a text or discuss it.
Because you will be reading texts that you do not own in this course, you may want to designate a portion of your spiral notebook for notes and observations about a text. Another option includes the use of post-it notes, which you can place on a page in your text for note-taking purposes.
Annotation Strategies
Highlighting and Underlining
Active readers highlight or underline their texts as they read. Highlight or underline features that you think are important to your understanding of the text. For example, you might highlight or underline the following:
• Important plot details
• Names of characters and character traits
• Setting details
• Shifts in point of view
• Themes, motifs, and symbols
• Key scenes
• Main points and specific details
• Items in a list
• Unusual or intriguing language features and literary terms
Please remember to highlight or underline judiciously. A heavily highlighted text will make it difficult to discern the important information.
Marking
Please implement a consistent set of abbreviations/markings that you will use as you read and reread texts. Here is a brief list of markings you may want to use:
• ** Asterisks
• [] or {} brackets
• | | vertical lines
• abbreviations like def, ex, impt, m. p.
• numbers or letters: 1, 2, 3, or a, b, c
• Place an asterisk or a double asterisk or a star next to important (very important) points.
• Mark confusing parts of the piece or sections that warrant a reread with vertical lines
• Place vertical lines next to important passages.
• Identify by marking with numbers or letters items in a list.
• Place abbreviations like def, ex, or impt next to important definitions or examples
• Use m.p. to identify main points
• Bracket important information contained in sentences.
To identify fictional elements as you encounter them, use the following:
• PLOT = plot item (or use one of the following)
EXP = exposition
TP = turning point
CF = conflict
RA = rising action
CX = Climax
FA = falling action
RES = resolution
• CH = characterization
• S = setting
• POV = point of view (1st person, limited omniscient, omniscient, etc.)
• TH = theme
• LT = literary term (irony, tone, foreshadowing, flashback, metaphor, simile,
personification, symbol, etc.)
Recording Notes
Here are some ideas for recording notes about your text as you read:
• Use a larger piece of paper placed inside the cover of your book to list the characters you encounter, the page on which they first appear, a very brief description of each, and the page numbers of any key scenes in which they appear.
• Keep track of important aspects of setting and important objects you encounter.
• Record themes, allusions, images, motifs, key scenes, symbols, plot events, etc. on a larger piece of paper on the inside of the back cover of your book. Trace the development of these elements as well as any patterns of development you perceive.
• At the end of each chapter, write a brief summary of the plot that includes all relevant incidents on a post-it. Pose at least two open-ended questions that you have about the text on these post-its.
• Mark with a post-it placed in the margins anything that strikes you as important, significant, and/or memorable. Write a brief comment about why you became intrigued. Remember to focus on fictional elements (plot, setting, characterization, point of view, and theme).
• Use post-its placed in the margins of pages for interpretive comments, questions, and remarks that refer to the meaning of the page.
• Note any words that you do not understand or any language features that strike you as unusual or inventive. Look up those words that you deem important and record the meanings on a post-it.
• Note all shifts in point of view.
Reasons for Underlining, Marking, and Taking Notes
Why should we mark the text? you may ask. Why is reading alone not good enough to
learn and study? While it is true that there are some students who earn high grades
without underlining, marking, and taking notes, these are in the minority. The vast
majority of students can benefit from developing a good system of annotation. The
benefits include the following:
1. Underlining identifies the important information.
The purpose for underlining a text is to identify the key information necessary for understanding the text and for test preparation. If this is done correctly, you only need to reread the underlined portions when you review the material later. This has two obvious benefits:
• You have reduced the amount of information to be learned to the essential points
• You save valuable study time.
2. Marking supplements underlining, emphasizing important information.
Underlining alone is often not enough. It is more effective when you use marks in addition to underlining to help emphasize important information. The benefits of marking are the same as underlining; you have signaled that the marked information is important in some way, and this saves you time when reviewing or preparing to write or discuss a text.
3. Taking notes supplies helpful labels.
Notes facilitate recall of important information. They make it easier to retrieve information for analytical purposes, too. When you begin to gather evidence for a literary analysis, you can return to your annotations and locate evidence to support your assertions more easily.
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