At some point in your life, you will find yourself in a position where you have to annotate something. If you’ve never had to do it before, it can be overwhelming at first. Not to worry. Here, I’ve compiled a guide to annotation that draws on my experience as both an English teacher and a student.
In this post, I will go over why we annotate, common mistakes, how to annotate, and finally, I will give you an example of what good annotation might look like.
Why do we annotate?
When I was in high school, annotation felt like an extra task on top of a million other things I had to do. My teacher would collect our books and check our annotations, and because of that, I felt the need to write unnecessary things in there (I would literally spend more time coming up with fake questions sometimes than I did actually processing the material), and I learned to hate it.
It was only after a few months of this that I realized how much more I was getting out of the text from annotating (my way, of course, and not with the unnecessary questions). Not only did I understand it at a deeper level, but I also remembered what I had read more, and returning to the text to find evidence for later essays was suddenly worlds easier.
That’s exactly why we annotate, and why this guide to annotation is so important. Annotation doesn’t have to be painful or superfluous if done right. When utilized correctly, it gives you the following benefits:
- Understanding and processing the text better
- Moving from passive to active reading
- Retaining what you read better
- Providing yourself with a roadmap to refer to when rereading or doing an essay/project
- Training your brain to better recognize patterns, key ideas, and literary devices
The most important of these benefits is that it moves you from passive to active reading. When your brain is involved and you’re actively searching and making connections, you get so much more out of the text.
Annotation definitely takes more time upfront, but in the long run, it makes your reading experience much more fulfilling. If you have to write an essay or do a project in the future, it also makes it much, much easier to find evidence and other materials.
Teacher recommendation: if you have the means, try to get a physical book and annotate inside it. Writing by hand activates your brain more, reinforcing your memory and allowing you to slow down and process what you’re reading. Plus, it makes it much easier to add comments and highlights exactly where you want them.
How do we annotate?
While several annotation protocols exist, and some teachers might have preferences, there isn’t one particular “correct” way to do it.
Instead, consider what you should do while annotating:
- Ask questions about what’s happening in the text, words or references you don’t understand, and why certain things are how they are
- Mark themes, symbols, and other figurative language
- Highlight or mark key ideas
- Highlight or underline important quotes and examples/evidence (especially for future essays)
- Pick out interesting or unique things in the text
- Comment on anything that surprises you, irritates you, or feels important–listen to your gut reaction to the text!
- Make connections between the text and things in your life or other literature
- Write short summaries of what you read
This can look different, and this guide to annotation will only cover some basic suggestions as to how to identify things in the text. The most important thing is that you look for the what (what the author is saying, or key words and ideas) and the how (how the author is making their point, or the craft and the structure). Here are some common shortcuts to help you out:
- Use an asterisk or star to mark key ideas
- Write “WC” and/or circle words for word choice/diction
- Write a question mark in the margins when you want to return to clarify something
- Underline/highlight evidence (aka lines that support the author’s main ideas)
- Circle or box in unfamiliar vocabulary
- Draw an arrow to the margins and write a connection you’ve made
Big Picture vs Smaller Details Annotation
If it helps, you can think of annotation in terms of the big picture and the smaller details.
Big Picture
Big picture annotation might include writing a character and theme list at the beginning of the book or on a separate piece of paper, then adding to it. It could also include listing the characters present in each chapter and adding a brief summary of main points of the chapter at the end of the chapter. If you are annotating a research paper or news article, add to your summary with key bullet points as you go.
Small Details
Smaller detail annotation happens on the page. This is where you write your questions, comments, and connections, as well as underlining evidence, marking key ideas, and finding literary devices. Check here for a helpful list of literary devices.
When picking out these small details, always be sure to keep the end goal in mind. If you know that you will be asked about a particular theme, or maybe characterization of a certain person, or even the setting, keep an eye out for anything related to that, and make sure to leave yourself a trail of literary breadcrumbs as you move through the book.
An Example: Annotating The Great Gatsby
To make our annotation guide more concrete, let’s look at The Great Gatsby.
Big Picture Lists
Immediately, on the first pages of the book, I make three lists: characters, symbols, and themes. Throughout the book, I will come back and add to these. For example, if I see the theme of wealth and class on page eight, I will write that next to the “Wealth and Class” bullet.
As I read through the book and quickly notice color symbolism (or any other symbols, motifs, or recurring elements), I give those their own place on that first page, too. And just like that, I’ve built myself a handy reference guide.
Narrowing It Down
Now we’ve moved on to individual chapters. Time permitting, I like to read for understanding the first time around. In this round of annotations, I write my questions and comments, highlight or mark anything that stands out to me, and pick out unfamiliar words or references. Then, as soon as I’m finished, I write myself a brief summary, make a short list of the characters who appear in that chapter, and add to my themes and symbolism lists at the beginning of the book. By doing this, I’m preparing myself well for any potential essay questions about theme, characterization, plot, and symbolism.
An example of a summary and character list for Chapter One of The Great Gatsby might look like this:
Characters:
Nick, Tom, Daisy, Jordan, Gatsby (indirectly)
Summary:
Nick introduces himself, the setting of East and West Eggs, and Gatsby. He goes to his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom’s mansion in East Egg for dinner, where he meets Daisy’s friend and professional golfer Jordan. They catch up and have a strange conversation over dinner. Tom gets a phone call during dinner, and Nick learns from Jordan that he has a mistress in New York. When Nick returns home to West Egg, he sees Gatsby from afar.
Getting into the Details
Now that I have a good idea of what the chapter is about, I can focus on the stylistic choices the author makes. As I go back, I have ideally looked up unfamiliar references, so I understand the text better and might write short comments, questions, or connections in the margins next to them. Having processed it a bit, I might also write some comments about the characters’ behavior or things that I’ve noticed pop up a few times (which will be great for later essays!). I could also hypothesize about what certain things might mean, how they might be significant, and if there is any potential foreshadowing.
And, of course, I will star my key points, highlight important quotes, and note what stands out to me. Some examples for a page from Chapter One of The Great Gatsby could look like…
- How much is Nick’s $80 rent worth today?
- White–color symbolism (add to list at beginning of book)
- East Egg=setting
- Daisy–distant cousin; Tom–her husband, went to college with Nick, brute (note the paragraph that characterizes him)
- Theme–$$$; commentary on $, rich v. poor (repetition of money)
- WC for Daisy and Tom: drifted, unrestfully, drift, wistfully
- Nick’s comment about Tom’s wealth–relatable, even today
- Tom–guy who probably starts fights
- Will Nick’s comment about them coming east come to light in the future?
Once I’ve done that, I can feel confident not just about my annotation ability, but also about how well I have prepared myself for any future assignments!
What are some common annotation mistakes?
Everything is important
When students first learn how to annotate and are told to pick out the most important information, the impulse is to highlight everything. Everything feels important, and you want to remember where it was.
We’ve all been there, and your ability to distinguish what’s important vs what’s not definitely gets better with practice.
Solution: Practice. Listen to your gut. Generally, don’t highlight huge paragraphs. Look for things that relate to characterization, theme, and plot, and start there.
Adding too much because you feel pressured to put random annotations on the page
Or you could be like me, and feel that you need to put unnecessary comments/questions in there. While you should certainly be training yourself to interact with the text, ask more questions, and allow yourself to react, you don’t need to do so artificially. For example, if you’re annotating the first chapter of The Catcher in the Rye, some reasonable annotations might be along these lines:
- Strong voice (could underline a couple of examples)
- Who’s David Copperfield?
- Strong language, definitely feel in this character’s head–could circle an example or two
- Potential focus on truth/honesty?
- Notes about family relationship
Some unnecessary things might include:
- Who is DB? (it says later on in the same line)
- Where was he born? (he says it’s not important, and you’ll probably find out later)
- Highlighting huge chunks of text
- Circling random things
Solution: Don’t write fake questions and comments. Let the words sit in your head, the same way you might try to taste the different flavors in food. Think about what you’re reading, how you feel about it, and why it might be important later on in the book. Don’t get caught up in filling in the margins.
Only focusing on the big picture
A third mistake is only focusing on the big picture. This is the exact opposite of highlighting everything. These are the people who add a short summary, highlight a line or two per chapter that correlate to the main theme or plot progression, and do nothing else. They are so focused on one aspect (or just getting through it) that they don’t actually look at the smaller details like literary devices, word choice, and sentence structure.
Solution: Slow down. It’s not just about arriving at the end. Understanding literature is about not just the what, but also the how and the why. Let yourself linger in the pages.
Rushing
Finally, many people rush through it. They’re so focused on getting it over with that they miss huge chunks and don’t really get anything from the text.
Solution: Again, slow down. It’s more time upfront, but you’ll save more time in the long run.
A Final Word
Like most things in life, the more you work at annotation, the better you will become. When you commit yourself to actively reading the text and really try to understand it, you will find that you get so much more out of it.
If you liked this guide to annotation, check out similar posts:
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- Understand Literature Better: Seven Easy Tips
- Eight Tips to Make Reading Dante’s Inferno Easier
- Why It’s Important to Study Literature: Eight Reasons
- Understanding Shakespeare: Verse and Prose
- 25 Classics That You Should Read and Why
