THE IMPORTANCE OF ANNOTATION

Own it, Baby!!

WHY ANNOTATE?

Interaction=ownership. The more personally invested you are, the more meaningful the text becomes.

Quick reference: timed writes/essays, subsequent assignments, discussion becomes easier and more efficient.

Practice for the AP exam. Students who annotate do better on the AP test.

WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR…

Consistency: Annotate often and consistently from beginning to end. While you don’t have to annotate every single page, an A+ grade will come fairly close to it. Keep a pen/pencil/ post-it handy! Careful not to skip sections of the text.

Depth: Go beyond summary/ identification. Underline or highlight devices/ rhetorical strategies AND why they are effective or what the intended effect is. Write a brief justification of WHY those devices are important. Do not merely highlight or underline with no accompanying comments.

Thoughtful Interaction: write comments, reactions, insights and/or questions.

Variety: mix up the type of annotations that you make: questions, predictions, personal reactions, paraphrasing, rhetorical devices AND explanations.

WHAT YOU SHOULD LOOK FOR…

Repetition/anaphora: often used to emphasize a major idea. Be observant of parallelism also.

Any insight on the speaker: background, experience, age, knowledge, reliability, POV, etc. Is the speaker credible? Why/why not?

Highlight/ underline clues about who the audience is: background, economic level, education, biases, age, fears, beliefs, culture.

Look for the purpose and HOW the speaker achieves it (description, informative, explanation, persuasion, entertainment, etc.) What’s the point of the text? How do you know?

Note the type of evidence: Statistics? Anecdotes? Figures/tables? Dialogue? Flashbacks? Footnotes? Expert testimony? Quotes? Examples? Reasons/ definitions?

WHAT YOU SHOULD LOOK FOR… Syntax: watch for a noticeable shift to short, choppy

sentences, or long, flowing sentences. Rhetorical Questions? Comment upon why the syntax is what it is.

Diction: circle unfamiliar words + look them up; also, circle important words and comment why the speaker chose those particular words.

Tone: highlight passages that contribute to the tone and explain WHY those quotes add to the tone; identify the tone using adjectives and justify your descriptors.

Structure/organization: chronological, special, flashbacks, anecdotes, compare/contrast, concession, transitions…

Appeals to Ethos, Pathos, Logos: Identify and explain logical fallacies or errors in logic.

Imagery/ figurative language: identify and explain similes, metaphors, hyperbole/understatement, personification, allusions, antithesis, paradox, etc.

SOME ADVICE…

Relate the events to your personal life and/or events happening in our society (know your news!)

Make note of any words or concepts you don’t understand…look up unfamiliar words (increase that academic vocabulary) and write questions for later discussion that will help you access the speaker’s reasoning.

Underline rhetorical devices. Note how these rhetorical devices impact your understanding/ reaction of/to the work. How do they make the speaker’s argument more effective?

Mark notes in the margins, i.e. check marks, question marks, stars, arrows, brackets, written words or phrases.

As you practice annotation, create your own system of highlighting content that is quotable, questionable, interesting, important, etc…