Annotating Texts
Annotate: trans. To add notes to, furnish with notes; intr. To add or
make notes
What does it mean to annotate a text?
Many editors and authors publish annotated editions of texts, which often
include notes on historical background, definitions of key terms, and critical
discourse. Critical readers, though, usually strive to be active readers by
filling the text with their own notes.
Why Annotate?
Annotating/Marking up texts often increases the reader’s ability to
remember key concepts, themes, diction, and imagery through forming an
active, rather than a passive, relationship with the text.
Annotating also allows the reader to recall where certain information is
located within the text. If you know you marked that important passage at
the top/bottom/middle of the page, finding the passage will be much easier
than if no passages have been marked at all.
Ways to Annotate:
 Highlighter – identify key sections without actually interfering with the text
 Pencil – Underline, circle, star key ideas, write questions and comments in
the margins. Pencil marks can usually be easily erased or changed.
 Index – Create a personal index in the front or back of the text which
identifies where key words or ideas appear in the text
 External Markers (ex. Post-it Flags) – allow for annotating without
damaging the text (ideal for texts such as library books)
What to annotate:
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Running themes
Repeated images/symbols/diction/ideas
Confusing passages/passages that spark questions
Shifts in tone/form
Words to define
Anything you, as the reader, find interesting
Passages/ideas that might relate to other texts
Of course, what you choose to annotate will vary depending on what you are
attempting to glean from the text. If, for example, you are trying to determine
which rhetorical strategies the author employs (logos, pathos, ethos), you would
mark examples of those strategies. On the other hand, if you were trying to
determine the steps in a procedure, you might number those steps as they appear.