Instructions for Annotating a Text:
Annotate – v. To furnish (a literary work) with critical commentary or explanatory notes [
For the sake of standardization of annotating for class and for grading purposes, your annotations should follow this format:
Inside Front Cover: Character list with small space for character summary and for page references for key scenes, moments of character development, etc.
Inside Back Cover: Themes, motifs, key scenes, plot line, epiphanies, etc. List and add page references and/or notes as you read.
Additional Markings:
Page Summaries: At the bottom of each page, write a brief summary, in note form, of what happened on that page. This should be done quickly but carefully. A page summary should take no more than 10 seconds.
Chapter summaries/titles: At the end of each chapter, write a brief summary of the plot at it occurred in that chapter. This does not have to be long or greatly detailed, but should include all relevant incidents. Supply an interesting title for each chapter of the book. This may prove useful even for books in which chapters are already titled. This practice will help you solidify your understanding of a chapter in just a few of your own words.
Underline: Within the text of the book, as you read or after you finish a night’s reading. underline or otherwise note anything that strikes you as important, significant, or memorable. If possible and profitable, write brief comments within the side margins that indicate your motivation in underlining. Focus on essential stylistic devices (diction, syntax, imagery, literary devices, tone) and elements of literature (plot, setting, characterization, point of view and theme). Often, I underline isolated words and phrases. Occasionally, I connect such underlinings with a line, in essence creating a new sentence, a distillation of ideas or meaning.
Brackets: Use brackets, as you read, together with abbreviations and symbols to indicate passages (too long to underline) that contain important themes, wonderfully nuanced descriptions, especially delightful phrasing and/or syntax, provocative assertions, and figurative language. And, of course, write comments and analytical snippets to clarify your thinking.
Vocabulary/unusual diction: Within the text of the book, circle words that are unfamiliar to you or whose use strikes you as unusual or inventive. Each night, try to look up in a dictionary at least one word that seem essential to an understanding of the meaning or the sense of the author. If it helps to do so, jot a brief definition or synonym nearby.
Questions: Actively engage the text and further confirm your understanding of each chapter by writing at least two open-ended questions for each. Short essay questions are most useful. If you have time, you may profit, however, from writing multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching, and true/false questions as well.
