Some obvious clues will be apparent before you read it, such as titles or headers for sections. For the following examples, the article “ Guinea Worm Facts” was used. Now you will annotate the document by adding your own words, phrases, and summaries to the written text. (Make notes about page number, which paragraph it is, or even short quotes to help you locate the passage again.) What Notes to Make

If you do this, be sure to leave enough information about the specific text you’re responding to that you can find it later if you need to. You can also use a notebook to keep written commentary as you read in any platform, digital or print. If it is a textbook that you do not own (or wish to sell back), use post it notes to annotate in the margins. If it is an article posted on the web, you could also you Diigo, which is a highlighting and annotating tool that you can use on the website and even share your notes with your instructor. Other note-taking plug-ins for web browsers might serve a similar function. A colored pen might make it easier to see than black or even blue. If it is a printed article, you may be able to just write in the margins. Where to Make Notesįirst, determine how you will annotate the text you are about to read. Annotation takes practice, and the better you are at it, the better you will be at reading complicated articles. It means to add notes (an-NOTE-tate) to text that you are reading, to offer explanation, comments or opinions to the author’s words. Think for a moment about what that word means. An active reading strategy for articles or textbooks is annotation.

To annotate an article