Annotate Makes You Annotate

When students use their skills to analyze literature, they must annotate to look for the main plot points or literary devices, locate the theme of the novel, and determine if the novel is an allegory. Even though analyzing a book is often confused with summarizing a book, they are entirely different things. While summarizing a book is just writing a few sentences about the most important points in the plot, analyzing a book requires you to look deeper into the story and find what the author’s purpose is. One technique students can use when to analyze literature is annotating. Annotating is a process in which students highlight or make a note of any literary device in the book, important plot points, or connections between the plot/characters to the real world.

The Norton Field Guide to Writing covers topics about writing and composing. Several of which I was already familiar with. In chapter 2, Bullock and Weinberg express how “Many readers find it helps to annotate as they read…” (16). I have become very familiar with annotating over the years. I often use this writing method to help me understand and summarize text I come across.

In the essay “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer J. Adler, the author explains that “marking up a book is not an act of mutilation, but of love” (1). Adler points out that marking books keeps a reader vigilant to what they are actually reading (2). The author continues on to say owning a book is more than having it sit on a shelf; owning a book means for the reader to make it unique for him or herself, doing so will make reading that much more enjoyable for the reader. Adler also claims that writing small notes or comments as you read helps readers to summarize what they’ve just read, even days later. He says that writing in books allows the brain to store that information deeper into the long term memory making it easier to come back to (2).

My note taking was scattered, sloppy, and unfinished. Currently it’s getting better. Some of the advantages I can get out of good note taking is better organization, quick reference’s, and better time management. Some of the disadvantages are not editing, not legible, and not reflecting on my notes. I noticed

A good way to think of this is like how a conductor makes notes on his musical scores. The conductor can mark them up again and again each time he returns to study them. This is the reason why you should mark your books. But a great book, rich in ideas and beauty, raises and tries to answer questions the reader may have and this demands the most active reading the reader is capable of. This person

Then I read the chapter again, but this time I have made picture in my mind of the pages and I try to anticipate the terms and the concepts and my own examples for each concept before I read them. If I miss any, I jot them down again. Sometimes, I read the book backwards, sub-heading to sub-heading until I can see pretty much the whole

Annotating fiction means “to add critical or explanatory notes to a text” (Encarta). Specifically, it requires you to do the following types of things:

To be an active reader is to be able to express yourself in the book one reads. Mortimer J. Adler argues in his article, “How to Mark a Book”, that to be an active reader, the reader needs to actually write in their book; but also to fully claim ownership of their book. According to Adler, there are plenty of ways one can mark in a book; underlining, vertical lines at the margin, asterisk, numbers in the margin, circling or highlighting, writing in the margin at the bottom or top, etc. One does not initially understand what they are reading, until they feel like they are having a conversation with the author. Adler emphasizes marking in a book keeps the reader mentally awake, helps their thoughts become more alive, and also remember later what

Research has shown how these engagement activities help students clarify new ideas and relate them back to the text. In addition, thinking aloud can help students increase the production of self-explanations and facilitate revision in the reader’s mind when they conflicted with the textual information presented (Lucero & Montanero, 2012).

While reading through books I sometimes find myself just saying the words in my head and they begin to have no meaning. By trying to create a picture in my head and linking together what I am reading to something that I heard in the past I find myself able to comprehend the passages in the book. I will then have an understanding of what is being said and will be able to recall what I read at a later time. Any time that I find this happening to me I will stop get up to take a break before I sit back down to read what I missed all over

Cornel notes have helped me keep my reading organized in one fashionable way. Before using cornel notes, I used to place thousands of sticky notes in my book, and ninety percent of them were useless. Whenever I finished a book, I would have to go through all the sticky notes and see what was useful, but with the help of cornel notes, I just put a sticky where I know there is a useful piece of information. Then, I write the quote down in my cornel notes and why it is useful or why I am interested in it. The way cornel notes have the topic on the top and the summary on the bottom helps me know exactly what the notes are about.

The first skill of note centers around the proofreading of essays, where an essay receives revisions, from the reconstruction of paragraphs to the replacement of disinteresting words with intriguing, more complicated vocabulary. My proof of mastery in this skill is in my essay on Christopher Columbus and Charles Lindbergh, in addition to my reflection on a project that I had worked on in my technology class, where I placed complex vocabulary into the essays with my portfolio draft. My strengths in the skill were that I paid close attention to detail, and added in excessively complex words to entice the reader. My major flaw, however, is that the process of replacing words is time-consuming, which gives me less time to focus on other issues in my essays, which were often longer than they needed to be. Fortunately, the constant expansion of essays doubles as a skill, especially when adding further information to short essays.

My annotation grades have not been consistent so far, because I annotate on the same day I write my rough draft and sometimes get in a rush just so I can get to writing my paper faster. I usually don’t have trouble understanding the article, unless I am particularly tired or I am in a bad mood. Ways I could improve on my work is dedicating specific time to each task of the assignment and spreading my work hours out to develop deeper connections with the text.

In my writing assignments, I found that I am good at organizing my thoughts and notes in an appropriate way, also going back and revising my mistakes along the way. In my future writing assignments, my goal is to make sure that I know how to start my writing properly and taking extra time to proofread the whole assignment.

I believe that my strategy of being in a quiet place with no distraction is working well. Also my strategy of connection the text with my real life and other classes. I may need to work on being able to stay focused in the book if I do have to get up and do something in the middle of my reading. I am aware of this problem though so I just give myself time to do the reading all in one sitting. I do need to work on annotating the text in a more meaningful way that I can understand if I come back to the article later. Right now I just highlight what stands out to me and write connections in the margins and when I come back to the readings later I don't know what is important and what is