When you were assigned reading for homework, did you ever feel as if you couldn’t recall half of what you had read? If you were asked a series of questions about the text, do you think you could answer them all? This problem becomes increasingly common with longer and more difficult texts. Luckily, there’s a solution to this problem, one that doesn’t involve reading the text hundreds of times again.
If you want to be able to regurgitate what you’ve read in a clear and concise manner, you should use annotations. Annotations enrich your reading of a particular text by getting you to interact with it. Rather than simply skimming through, you can build a stronger understanding with the text by physically identifying key points and making numerous mental connections.
How do we annotate? The short explanation is that we simply highlight and jot down notes next to the important parts of the text. “But wait,” you might ask, “isn’t everything in the text important? Won’t we simply just be coloring the pages yellow until our highlighter dies out?”
I’m here to tell you that no, annotating isn’t some coloring exercise. In this guide, I’ll give you tips and tricks on how to annotate, showing you what components of the text your brain and marker should hone in on. My hope is that you’ll be able to apply these skills to other scholarly texts you encounter in the future.
For this exercise, we will use certain paragraphs taken from the ninth chapter of Irene Silverblatt’s Moon, Sun, and Witches. I will provide images that detail my own annotations with this text to serve as examples.
Annotate Elements of the Author’s Argument!
If you want to understand a text better, you first need to focus on the text’s main idea, which is usually synonymous with the author’s argument. To start, you will first need to find and identify the author’s thesis statement, which is usually located at the start of the text. The thesis statement acts as a sort of preview for the rest of the text, as this includes the author’s claim and what type of evidence they will focus on in order to prove that claim. As an added note, the thesis statement’s length can vary between one sentence to multiple ones.
From there, you can begin to find and study the evidence used by the author to support their claim, as well as the analysis that accompanies it. The majority of your annotations will cover this evidence and analysis, as we will discuss in the proceeding sections.
Annotate Elements You Make Connections With!
As we continue our readings and come in contact with the author’s evidence and analysis, we might often make mental connections with these elements. These connections often result due to our own background knowledge or the personal events we’ve undergone in our lives. By highlighting these elements and writing down what connections we’ve made with them, we start to develop our understanding of the text by applying it to our own experiences, molding the author’s argument in a way that is relevant to us.
Annotate Points of Confusion!
If you reach a part of the text you don’t understand, or that you feel needs more clarification, highlight it and write your question in the margins. In doing so, you’re leaving behind a bookmark of sorts that you can return to later. Once you’re finished with the text, you’ll have a much better chance of being able to answer the question on your own, since you’ve become much more familiar with the text by the end. If you can’t answer the question, then you still have the opportunity to get it answered by visiting your professor or any other scholarly individual who is familiar with the text.
Annotate Words and Proper Names!
If you find a word or proper name you’ve never encountered before, take a moment to find its definition and write it in the text’s margins. Even if learning this term doesn’t influence your understanding of the text, it’s still a good idea to annotate it just for your own personal benefit. In doing so, you’ll be expanding your personal vocabulary!
On the other hand, if a word is familiar to you, don’t entirely ignore it! Oftentimes, author’s use certain words in certain ways for rhetorical purposes. Rather than write the definition of this word, write a note in the margins about how the use of this word strengthens and/or better explains the author’s argument.
Final Thoughts
In truth, there isn’t really a “correct” way of annotating. I’ve provided these aforementioned elements to act as basics, so you can expand upon them however you choose to do so. After all, we all learn in our own way, so use annotations as a way to personalize your learning experience with any text you encounter.
Works Cited:
Silverblatt, Irene. “Cultural Defiance: The Sorcery Weapon.” Moon, Sun, and Witches, Princeton University Press, 1987, pp. 159-196.
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