Which Way To Annotate Your Text Will Help You Learn The Most From The Materials?

What is annotation?

Annotation can be:

A systematic summary of the text that you create within the document
A key tool for close reading that helps y'all uncover patterns, notice of import words, and place master points
An active learning strategy that improves comprehension and retention of information

Why comment?

Isolate and organize important material
Identify key concepts
Monitor your learning equally you read
Make test prep effective and streamlined
Tin can be more efficient than creating a dissever ready of reading notes

How do yous annotate?

Summarize cardinal points in your own words.

Use headers and words in bold to guide you lot
Look for main ideas, arguments, and points of evidence
Observe how the text organizes itself. Chronological order? Idea trees? Etc.

Circumvolve fundamental concepts and phrases

What words would it be helpful to expect-upwardly at the cease?
What terms show up in lecture? When are different words used for similar concepts? Why?

Write cursory comments and questions in the margins

Be equally specific or broad as you would similar—use these questions to activate your thinking most the content
Run across our handout on reading comprehension tips for some examples

Employ abbreviations and symbols

Try ? when you accept a question or something you lot demand to explore further
Endeavour ! When something is interesting, a connection, or otherwise worthy of annotation
Try * For anything that you lot might employ as an example or evidence when y'all use this information.
Ask yourself what other system of symbols would make sense to you lot.

Highlight/underline

Highlight or underline, simply mindfully. Check out our resource on strategic highlighting for tips on when and how to highlight.

Use annotate and highlight features built into pdfs, online/digital textbooks, or other apps and browser add-ons

Are you lot using a pdf? Explore its highlight, edit, and comment functions to support your annotations
Some browsers accept add-ons or extensions that allow you to annotate web pages or spider web-based documents
Does your digital or online textbook come with an note feature?
Tin your digital text be imported into a annotation-taking tool similar OneNote, EverNote, or Google Keep? If so, yous might be able to annotate texts in those apps

What are the near important takeaways?

Annotation is near increasing your appointment with a text
Increased engagement, where you think virtually and procedure the cloth then expand on your learning, is how you achieve mastery in a subject area
Equally y'all annotate a text, inquire yourself: how would I explicate this to a friend?
Put things in your own words and draw connections to what you know and wonder

The table below demonstrates this procedure using a geography textbook extract (Press 2004):

A chart featuring a passage from a text in the left column and then columns that illustrate annotations that include too much writing, not enough writing, and a good balance of writing.
An image of a geology textbook page showing written notes and highlighting to indicate annotation possibilities.

A mutual concern about annotating texts: It takes time!

Yeah, it tin can, but that fourth dimension isn't lost—it'due south invested.

Spending the time to comment on the front does two of import things:

It saves you time later when you're studying. Your annotated notes will assist speed upwards exam prep, because you can review critical concepts quickly and efficiently.
Information technology increases the likelihood that you will retain the data after the class is completed. This is particularly important when you lot are supplying the building blocks of your mind and time to come career.

One last tip: Attempt separating the reading and annotating processes! Quickly read through a department of the text first, then go back and annotate.

Works consulted:

Nist, S., & Holschuh, J. (2000). Active learning: strategies for college success. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 202-218.

Simpson, M., & Nist, S. (1990). Textbook notation: An effective and efficient report strategy for college students. Periodical of Reading, 34: 122-129.

Press, F. (2004). Agreement earth (4th ed). New York: W.H. Freeman. 208-210.

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.
Y'all may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Learning Center, University of Due north Carolina at Chapel Hill