'How To Mark A Book' By Mortimer J. Adler

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).

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

Adler gives examples of different ways one can still actively read and make annotations while getting around writing in a book when he suggests, “How about using a scratch pad slightly smaller than the page-size of the book...and then insert these sheets permanently inside the front and back covers of the book” (Adler 19). By offering other ways to make annotations, Adler makes the point that there is no excuse to not actively read. Another way he creates an encouraging tone is by pointing out the flaws of people who do not own books in more than a physical way by using words such as “deluded” (Adler 17) to steer them away from passive reading. Adler’s use of logos also makes the tone persuasive. He explains why writing is necessary by mentioning “the physical act of writing, with your own hand, brings words and sentences more sharply before your mind and preserves them better in your memory” (Adler 18). By providing a fact, Adler provides reason for his ideas to effectively reach out to his audience. One other strategy Adler uses to keep a consistent tone is enumerating devices for marking a book. If Adler would have summarized them in paragraph form, it would have made the tone more informative than persuasive. With listing, he gives off the impression that one should consider trying many different

Speaker: Throughout his essay, “How to Mark a Book”, Mortimer J. Adler makes it especially clear that to understand a book and make it a part of yourself, you would have to destroy it with love. His passion for reading is extraordinary. He includes examples of how he expresses himself in the book from “making a personal index on the back end-papers” to “outlining the book [as an integrated structure]”. He encourages everyone to write in between the lines a book, but also making sure that you “acquire the idea and possessing the beauty of the book.” This simply shows that he goes far beyond than ordinary readers.

Whenever I read books, articles, etc. that I know I will be tested on or need to remember I make side notes and highlight. While reading I determine what I believe is most important. I pick out key terms, names, dates, and numbers. I might make side notes and summarize some things. I also like to highlight words or phrases I may be unsure of that I later look up the meaning so I have a better understanding of the text. After reading the essay, How to Mark A Book, by Mortimer J. Adler, my reading process isn't going to change much. I agree with Adler’s assertion that books are as much a part of your head or your heart. I believe this because people can learn a lot from things that they read. For example, you can learn about nature, different

As a child, I read non-stop. I used to spend entire nights reading, so much so that by the age of 9, I had developed grey circles under my eyes, which I wore like a badge. In school, I would use every free second I had to get just a little closer to finishing whatever book I had on hand. Ms. Carpenter, who always seemed as though she didn’t like teaching very much, frequently yelled at me for keeping my books on my desk so I could get to them quicker whenever I finished my classwork. She insisted that they were a distraction. But I always had a book to read, because every Friday each class walked in a neat line

After thinking about this question for some time I came up with a very simple answer. We write to discover meaning. When we read we ask questions on what an author’s point is. What is his or her point that they are trying to make? After reading “The End of Remembering” I noticed that we write to put our thoughts on paper. Like the Editors say in the introduction to The Ways of Reading, “These essays are meant to be challenging.” (Editors 8) Foer’s “The End of Remembering” is a great essay that has no boundaries in terms of the questions asked. It also presents different arguments that can be developed on memory. Foer wants his readers to think on why the subjects of reading and writing are important. He starts the chapter with the subject of memory but asks why we read.

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

To start off might the author want to really show the purpose of a book and prove that they are more than just filled with words. In the book fahrenheit 451 the author said that a book is a weapon by using figurative language. “A book is a loaded gun…” pg. 56 A book cant possible be an actual gun but it is a weapon we use to become smarter and full of knowledge but he could've used a different word to describe it utility. By describing the book as a weapon it means its importance is even bigger. More than just a helpful thing because i f the author

When I get assigned a book to read, most of the time I skim over it and forget it in the morning. Foer writes “As books became easier and easier to consult, the imperative to hold their concerns in memory became less and less relevant, and the very notion of what it meant to be erudite began to evolve from possessing information internally to knowing where to find information in the labyrinthine world of external memory.” In this section he is building his argument by giving us a visual. Foer is implying that when it 's easy to read we just forget it because it wasn’t a challenge; he is also implying that we won’t

Tie to audience: Why is it important to know how to annotate a book properly ? That is because of how Common Core standards want us to be able to read and comprehend passages independently and if you to go to English 2A or English 3 Honors, annotating would become a necessary skill to have. Even later on

A Transactional Reader Response is described by Lois Tyson as the “[f]eelings, associations, and memories occur as we read, and those responses influence the way in which we make sense of the text as we move through it” (173). My past experiences made me able to relate to

One is better at retaining the story when they read physical books they are better at stimulating the brain by engaging all the senses: by looking at the text; holding and being immersed in the smell of the book. Reading allows one to use their brain to fill in the missing parts of the story by imagining. The reader is actively processing what they are reading allowing it to go into their long-term memory. Physical books help one to learn new words by reading. Reading helps one to imagine the words and characters thus facilitating retention and prevents zoning

When I read a book or a paper, I read it and sometimes make a few mental notes. What do you do? Do you mark and write things down? In Mortimer J. Adler’s paper, How to Mark a Book, he argues the best way to get the most out of reading is to mark the book or paper, leaving ones thoughts’ on the pages. Some say this slows them down, or leaves behind a messy, ruined book, but Adler claims reading slower and writing thoughts down allows the reader and author to have a conversation that will enhance the readers understanding of the text. Through his paper, Adler attempts to use the rhetorical triangle of ethos, pathos, and logos to connect the audience to his paper and to convince them the best way to understand a text is through marking it.