13.1: Annotations for Readings and Writing--Readings

Introduction

In college, we read to learn. To do this well, we must be active readers who seek both to understand and to engage with texts. What does that mean? It means we annotate our texts to help us make those texts say to us what the writers intend, alongside what our own prior knowledge helps us to see. It also means that we annotate so that we can use the text in crafting our essays. These require different foci (the plural of “focus”) when we read.

Annotating for Reading is about comprehending a text. We highlight, underline, question, define, summarize, and react with the purpose of solidly understanding what the text means explicitly (clearly-stated) and implicitly (hinted at). An example of such annotating looks like this (Note: Click on this image for a readable pdf.): 

In this example, the annotations highlight what seems important to the reader and summarize the meanings of the highlighted portions. It asks questions and finds answers to those questions through class discussion and Google. It looks up definitions and incorporates reaction statements that help the reader make clearer connections to the student’s own background knowledge and understanding. And it incorporates a reaction directly to the text that puts what the text says in a context that the reader has experienced.

Overall, the annotation is meant to help the student with general understanding.

 

Annotating for Writing is about specifically considering what you and your essay audience need to know before you write your essay, what you think about how the connections between the text and your essay assignment, and what specifics from the text support or contrast with what you might argue or discuss in your essay. An example of such annotating looks like this:

 

Essay Prompt: Given how divided the United States is now over almost everything, does it make sense for the author to have hope?

 

Of course, differences remain between groups seeking social justice [I feel like even though there are differences, at least there are groups seeking social justice. I know that doesn’t mean everybody is looking out for each other. Example: The group of minority students who got Affirmative Action ended mainly because they thought other minorities were taking their seats at Harvard. Still, a lot of different groups try to make things better for everybody when they try to make it better for their particular group. Example: Black Lives Matter reps for other races who are unarmed and get shot by police.]; however, these differences do not have to result in division[AR5] . Intersectionality is a way for people to bridge the gaps between them and work towards justice for everyone. [Summary: We have a way to put differences behind us so that we can team up and make things better. It’s called intersectionality, and it’s a real thing.] This term is used to help people see the intersections that exist when they meet someone different from them. For example, a Black woman and a White man in America seem very different, but if we dig a little deeper, we might find a connection that leads to a shared cause. [Race and gender are two big ways that people are separated. I don’t know if it’s getting worse with race, but gender has become this whole problem. You have sexists on social media convincing boys that girls and women should be cooking, cleaning, and giving themselves to men happily. You have people making a big deal about transgender and non-binary people playing sports. And even though more people are watching the WNBA, their salaries are pitiful compared to men’s basketball players.] This is something that happened in Chicago in the late 1960s. The Black Panther party, which included many women, joined forces with groups of White people from the Appalachian Mountains area to secure better economic conditions.[AR6] [AR7]  The Black Americans were coming from urban, inner city conditions. The White Americans were from rural West Virginia and had moved to Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. [So, they were poor but had a different experience of what being poor was until the mountain people moved to the city. I bet they moved to the city thinking it would be better, got here, and found out that poor is a terrible thing to be no matter where you do it. That’s an intersection, right there.] Both groups found a connection through poverty and their desire to create a better life for their children. This is an example of intersectionality before the term or the concept became popular in social justice circles. [Summary for Essay: The author tells readers about how people can get past their differences through intersectionality. Intersectionality is something that has been around a while, including in the worst parts of the 1960s when people were kind of giving up on the Civil Rights Movement. Intersectionality has helped people who were super different, like Black Panthers and White people from West Virginia who moved to Chicago, to come together to make life better for everybody.]

This annotation is focused on the conversation the reader can have with the text in answering the question asked by the essay prompt. The reactions and comments have to do with what is hopeful or not about intersectionality as a way to get through Americans’ divisiveness. They will help the reader to decide what argument they can make. For instance, the annotations in this paragraph look like they could be leading to the idea that when people find common causes to help make their lives better, then we do manage to make a difference. And this can happen during times when Americans really seem not to like each other between groups who would logically not get along. If an essay writer puts this all together, then the writer could have a thesis arguing that the writer should have hope, with one of its reasons being that people have found ways to see what connects them even when they should be separate

 

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 [AR1]What is the difference between “differences” and “division”?

 [AR2]From class discussion: 

·        Difference is something that exists a lot of times without people doing anything to make it exist. We don’t decide to be different and don’t control it.

·        Division is something we can control. We don’t have to let being different be something bad that keeps people separated. We can decide to ignore differences or even celebrate them.

 [AR3]What was happening in Chicago in the 1960s?

·         [AR4]Civil Rights Movement was ending in the South. Riots in cities like Chicago after MLK assassinated in 1968.

·        Also, big problems with protests and stuff at Democratic National Convention in Chicago. [Reaction: A new one in 2024! Happening when people have been protesting the War in Gaza.]

·        Still a lot of racism and discrimination.

 [AR5]So, we don’t have to hate each other just because we’re different and disagree. That’s true, but a lot of how we are different and disagree has a long, terrible history, and people are all up in their feelings about it. How are we all supposed to just get over it?

 [AR6]For real? Because the Black Panthers were not known for being peaceful with White people!

 [AR7]I asked my grandma about it, and she said that Fred Hampton was a Chicago leader in the Black Panthers who was all about making change. He figured that they would have more success at making change if they teamed up with other groups who wanted to change some of the same bad conditions.