What is Annotating?

Annotating is writing comments, questions, and reactions to your readings in the margins of the book or handout. In order to annotate, you have to pay attention to both the reading and your reactions to the reading.

What should you annotate as you read?  Here are some suggestions your classmates offered today: 

• vivid imagery
  
• details and descriptions
  
• the speaker/narrator's emotions
  
• the speaker/narrator's personality (his or her persona)
  
• digressions or tangents that appear in the reading
  
• your questions about the reading
  
• the kinds of words the speaker uses (simple or complex, specific or general, concrete or abstract)
  

You may respond to many other aspects of a reading, but this list is a good starting point.