How To Read and Annotate the Essays in This Book
- Page ID
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Using the Reading Cycle: Pre-reading, During Reading, and Post Reading
This book is built with the reading cycle in mind. Chapter 18 covers the reading cycle in-depth, but each selection in this section works to engage you in the reading cycle. Before each essay, is a set of pre-reading questions. These questions will help you 1) review past knowledge or experiences so you can better understand the selection, or 2) give you elements to look for while reading the text.
Pre-Reading
Pre-Reading helps the reader...
- Relate the reading to past experiences so they can better understand the reading
- Understand what to look for while they read the essay
- Gather background knowledge that will be helpful while reading the selection
Readers are often tempted to skip over introductory information as we begin a book or essay, but the introductory questions for each selection in this book will help you to better understand and engage with the essay, so do consider taking a few extra minutes before you begin reading to contemplate the pre-reading questions.
But we can also engage the reading cycle while we read to better understand a text. While reading a text, we should not simply run our eyes over the page but instead work to engage with and understand the text.
During Reading
To be an active reading during reading, consider the following:
- Mark the text. This is also called annotating. Underline the main point and supporting evidence and mark your own ideas and responses in the margins.
- Read with purpose. Even if your teacher did not give you a specific purpose for reading this essay, you can probably see how it relates to your course at this moment. Perhaps you are reading a compare and contrast essay, and you are expected to write your own compare and contrast essay. In this case, you should read the essay to understand it but also to observe what tactics the writer uses to structure the compare and contrast essay.
- Read with writing in mind. Many times, you will be asked to write about the essays you read in this course, and even write essays where you bring these readings together into a single essay. So, when you read an essay, don’t expect your interaction with it to stop with the reading; rather, consider writing topics and your ideas on the essay as you read.
After you have read the essay, you will then be expected to move into post-reading by either discussing the essay in class or writing about it. See the “Post-Reading Questions” after each story in the book for an idea of what questions you might be expected to answer during class. If you can’t answer these questions, look back at the essay and mark the points in the story when these questions are answered or discussed.
What is annotation and why should I do it?
A good tactic for reading actively in any class is marking the text; another word for this is “annotating.” The word “annotation” essentially means “a note,” so when you annotate, you make notes on the text you are reading. You might hear this word in other contexts in your college courses as well; for example, constructing an annotated bibliography means making a bibliography with notes about your sources after each citation.
Practicing annotation will help you in all of your college courses. Annotating is a simple way of taking reading notes, and it means you can decrease your study time when the test rolls around.
Further, in this class you will often be asked to write about the readings. If you have taken notes on an essay while you read it the first time, it will be easier to write a paper or journal entry of a text because you will have already marked important passages as well as your thoughts on them.
In short, annotating will help you be a successful college student.
How do I annotate?
This book was built with annotation in mind. We have intentionally left you space between lines and margins on the essays to encourage the marking of the text. If you are an unsure note-taker at first, try making your notes on post-its and sticking them in the book or make your notes in pencil so it can be erased. Another tactic is to read the essay first to get an idea of what is in the essay, and then read it a second time to make your notes. This way, you will feel sure of your marks when you make them.
Issues to consider when annotating:
- Signpost / When you signpost, you simply mark what is going on at different points in the story. For example, you might write “gets out of cave” in the Allegory below when the prisoner is released from the cave.
- The main point and supporting evidence / Especially when you are not given a reading purpose, simply looking for the main point and supporting evidence is always a good place to start when annotating.
- Points that resonate with you, either because they are well-written or you agree or disagree. Underline the text and then write your reaction in the margin.
- Points that confuse you / Consider marking these with a question mark for easy reference.
- Using symbols and shorthand. The margins in this book should leave you room to write, but consider coming up with your own shorthand, such as using “TH” in the margin to mark the author’s thesis