Solution: You might not love what you’re reading, but try to notice any personal responses you have to the text, and write them down. Yes, it’s okay to write “this part is boring” in the margins!
This includes questions when something is unclear, connections you make to other texts or to yourself, points you want to bring up in class, whether something is interesting or new to you, or even when things get boring. Your annotations should always include your genuine thoughts and reactions to the text. Most students are so focused on trying to annotate the “right things” that they forget the most important purpose of annotating: your own personal response to the text. Solution: Know these 11 annotation strategies. You can even use annotation symbols like stars and exclamation points, and certainly abbreviate whenever possible. Fragments, single words and bullet points are best.
#Annotate a text example full
Using full sentencesĪnnotations are not meant to be mini essays in the margins. Solution: Use the Highlight and Rewrite strategy. (Seriously, though.) 5. For every highlight, you should write at least a symbol or a few words – as I describe in common annotation mistake #5. If you don’t, then once the text leaves your working memory (within minutes), you won’t be able to recall why you highlighted something. Unless the text is very simple and short (about a paragraph), and you’re annotating for just one purpose (for example, symbols), you need to accompany your highlights with text. Highlighting without incorporating text is pointless. Annotate for anything that aligns with what your intention is. Think about why you are reading the text and what you’re supposed to get from it. If you’re reading a text to identify the theme, then annotate for all references to theme or symbols of that theme. If you’re reading a text to acquire knowledge, then your purpose becomes to find main ideas and key points. If you’re reading text that you plan to incorporate into an essay, then that becomes your purpose. Without a purpose, you’ll likely end up annotating not enough or way too much. Having no purposeĪnother of the top common annotation mistakes is not having a purpose to your annotations. If you’re a bonafide book aficionado who loves the written word for the sake of language, then a) I love you, and b) consider keeping a reading journal where you can capture any memorable text you encounter in your reading. Solution: Don’t annotate pleasure books, unless you really want to. The problem with people thinking they “should” annotate everything is that they often become so overwhelmed and annoyed with the process that they ultimately reject the practice altogether. See above for all instances you should take notes what remains is pleasure reading. Annotating when it’s unnecessaryĬommon annotation mistake #2 is annotating text when there’s no need to. If the text is for school, work or personal development, commit to at least basic annotations, even when your mischievous brain-voice tries to convince you that you’ll “remember” it. Solution: Commit to annotating all text that isn’t in the category of pleasure reading. Unless you’re reading an incredibly shocking text that causes a rapid increase of memory-enhancing brain chemicals (adrenaline, cortisol), then the information you’re reading will only stick around in your working memory temporarily. If you’re reading intellectual, academic text that contains information you will need at any point in the future, you should annotate it. Biggest annotating mistake ever is not thinking you need to annotate.
#Annotate a text example how to
Common annotation mistakes and how to fix them 1.
Check to see if you’re making any of these mistakes, and then follow the solutions I give for up-leveling your annotation game. Below, I share 6 common annotation mistakes I see students make all the time when reading and marking up text.
0 kommentar(er)
