How to: Annotate

Learning to read scholarly articles can be a big

jump. In high school, students often read narrative writing, or
news articles. Articles found on databases such as JSTOR and What is JSTOR?
Worldcat?
Worldcat contain some of the worlds leading research if
only that research wasnt a tad boring.
Annotating is a great way to stay engaged with
academic articles for longer periods of time, increase your
understanding, and review material. Think of annotating as
taking notes, but with a purpose. Youll need to begin with a
printed version of your article. If you want to annotate on a
budget, try downloading a PDF viewer that allows you to take
notes directly on the text.
You want to find the big ideas. Try highlighting
key concepts, or circle summarizing sentences. If the article is
a bit longer, put an asterisk by an important paragraph. If you
are not comfortable marking up the paper, sticky notes are a
great alternative. Jot down any questions you have have in
the margin of the text. Define words that are new to you. If
your lecturer provides any information on the socio-cultural
context of the article, jot that down above the text.
Annotations = Annotating can be very freeform, it only matters that you
Notes with a understand your notes.
Purpose Annotations are a great review source. Ideally,
you should be able to read your annotations and gain a
thorough understanding of the text. If your class is theory
based, keep articles in a large binder. Read your annotations
before examinations and periodically throughout the semester.
Pay close attention to the socio-cultural context of each Remember for
article, the authors, and the main concepts. If your class is Microbiology!
research focused, try and pull out the research methods,
major findings, and suggestions for improvement within each
article. Create a spreadsheet with all this information readily
available. Annotations are a great tool for managing large
quantities of reading. Learning to annotate is all about finding
your personal style, and using it to engage the text.