Annotating is a fancy word used for “marking or highlighting a novel.” It is like talking with a book: annotating allows you to ask questions, comment on meaning, and mark events and passages you want to revisit. It is a permanent record of your conversation with the text.
Why Should You Annotate?
Some people say you really don’t own a book until you mark it up. Annotating is a way to help you own the information in the book. When you mark the book, you mark what is most important to you.
Annotating helps you sustain attention while reading text.
Annotating enables you to quickly find and discuss information from a novel in class with more support, evidence, and proof. In high school and college, language arts teachers often ask students to annotate novels for a grade and to make it easier to discuss the book in class.
How Should You Annotate?
This annotating guide has suggestions based on how I learned to mark-up novels: ultimately, you will want to choose your own way to mark up your own books.
When you annotate, there are two levels of information you should track.
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The big ideas.
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The details within the text.
Tracking the Big Ideas
Try the following suggestions to track the big ideas as you read a book. I suggest writing these notes on the book, but you can use separate sheets of paper if you wish.
On the inside front cover of the book: List the characters and leave a small space for characteristics and moments of development. Include page references for key scenes.
On the inside back cover: Include key narrative structure items:
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Setting: Where and when the novel takes place.
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Conflict: A problem between characters, or within a character
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Rising Action: Actions taken to solve the problem.
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Climax: the turning point that ultimately solved the problem.
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Falling Action: actions that occurred as a result of solving the problem.
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Resolution: final outcome of the novel or story
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Themes: fundamental and universal ideas explored in the novel.
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Literary Elements: recurring structures, contrasts, or other literary devices that help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
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Symbols: objects, characters, figures, colors or other ways the author represented abstract ideas or concepts.
On the bottom and side margins of pages, write interpretive notes, questions, and/or remarks that refer to meaning of the page. Markings or notes to tie in with information on the inside back cover.
On the top margin of pages, write plot notes — a quick few words or phrases that summarize what happens here (useful for quick location of passages in discussion and for writing assignments).
Tracking Details Within the Text
Details of key importance within the text should be marked/underlined/highlighted in different colors which will stand out from the page and allow you to scan quickly for information. Specific details to consider capturing include:
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Setting
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Character descriptors
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Important events
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Important plot development
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Key scenes, quotes, character development
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Literary elements (Allusion, Allegory, etc.)
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Important cause/effect and/or problem/solution connections
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Important information to discuss in class
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Questions to ask in class
Don’t mark everything – if you do, nothing will stand out!
Using an Annotating Bookmark
Try the annotation marks on this Annotating Bookmark to quickly recognize and recall specific aspects of the text. Over time, you should start to mark only those things that are difficult for you.
Download the bookmark, print double-sided on cardstock, cut out, and use!
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(c) 2010-2019, Monte W. Davenport, Ph.D.
