ANNOTATING

Annotating is any interaction to a text in effort to enhance the readers’

understanding and interest towards certain information. It is commonly done
through adding information, highlighting, translating, and drawing.

Adding Information
Many students who find valuable
information often prefer to store it
in their textbook. They write the
information in blank space of the
book such as at the corner, middle,
top, and bottom of the page. The
reason of why they do that is
perhaps because the information
does not exist in their textbook, so
it will be simpler to put together
related information on the same page or simply because they do not bring a
notebook. This activity is categorized as one of interactions to a text in effort to
enhance the readers’ understanding of certain information.

Highlighting
A textbook with long
paragraphs often makes its
readers get difficulty to find
a piece of information that
they need and to locate
where the information that
they have previously found
is. One of solutions that can
be done to overcome the
problem is highlighting the
information. The main purpose of highlighting is to make certain information in
a textbook more visible. Therefore, readers can re-find the information easily in
case they accidentally forget it. Highlighting is commonly done by the readers
through underlining, circling, or coloring.
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 Translating
Finding a term or word used in
relation to a particular subject that
you do not know its meaning is
something which often happens
when reading a textbook,
especially those written in a
foreign language. Not knowing
the meaning of the term or word
will definitely limit the ability of someone to understand certain information
fully. Students often overcome this problem by changing the term into a
different language or write its meaning right after or near it. What the students
do is a kind of interaction to a text in effort to enhance their understanding of
certain information called Translating.

Drawing
Drawing created by students on
a page of book might relate
directly with the topic which is
discussed in the book or might
not relate at all with even the
subject that the students learn.
The main objective of drawing seems not only to enhance the drawers’
understanding towards information in the book but also to enhance their
enthusiasm for studying. The first picture looks like a creature called
Pterodactyl which does not relate at all with the topic Greeting and Introduction
in English. In contrast, the second picture looks like a wall clock with its
description which relates with the topic Time. Neither of the pictures is
incorrect. Both of them can be
categorized as interactions to a
text in effort to enhance the
readers’ understanding and
interest towards information in a
textbook.

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Ways of Annotating
Adding information, highlighting, translating, and drawing are common ways
that students do when they annotate certain information in their textbook. Ways
of annotating might vary more in number depending on what context it is
applied. However, no matter how readers annotate, the objective will always be
the same; to enhance their understanding and interest.

Source

Setyawan, Harits. 2019. Reading with Understanding. Bandar Lampung: Aura

Printing and Publishing.

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