In lieu of my previous post, "How To Annotate Books," which has been so well loved, I have decided to put up a post for annotating academic texts! This is perfect for students, budding academics, and even seasoned researchers who want to give annotating a go.
Identify The Text
As always, start off by identifying the text. What type of text is it? Primary, secondary, research, review, critique, analysis, op-ed, think piece, anecdote, etc. This impacts how you will approach the text. Secondly, identify what you hope to gain from reading this piece. Is it for enjoyment, learning, researching a specific question, or is it to find a specific piece of information? Annotating can help you sift through the dense information presented in academic texts. Knowing your purpose for reading beforehand can help you make useful annotations.
Select Your Materials
Annotating academic texts can be a lengthy affair. So it is best to get settled in beforehand. Some people prefer to annotate by hand on paper. Others prefer to do it digitally on the ipad or even on the kindle. If you are choosing to go the traditional route, have all your texts printed and ready to go. Select a pen with ink that is a different color than the text and about two different colored highlighters. Avoid making your text a rainbow of colors. You only need enough color to make your scribbles pop against the wall of uniform printed text.
Chunk By Chunk
Start reading the text in chunks. First, read the subheadings to get a feel for all the points that will be discussed in the text. Then start off by reading the introduction or abstract. Slowly delve into the information heavy paragraphs. After each paragraph, use your pen to scribble a one line sentence describing the gist of that paragraph. This will help you keep the concepts organized with mental clarity, while also effectively summarizing the main point of each paragraph.
When you encounter paragraphs that include the vital information you need, start annotating. Create a bullet points of all the information that is important to you. Underline or highlight any lines you intend to use as direct quotes. You can even underline or highlight number, statistics, and facts, which can easily get lost in the text when you revisit the article.
Jot down any questions, points of confusion, or concepts you intend to research more later.
Use Abbreviations & Keep It Minimal
The point of annotating is to briefly interact with the text while keeping focus and engagement while reading. Stopping frequently to write lengthy notes can interrupt the intensive reading that many academic texts often require. So, it is wise to use abbreviations and annotate only the essential bits of information that you will actually need.
Ending Annotation
At the end of the text, take the time to reflect on all the key information you gained and all the connections to you made. Jot down a quick paragraph summarizing the gist of the article, the major key points, and the connections you made while reading the article. This summative paragraph will act as a guide when you revisit this paper later. You can also write a few summative sentences after a major section or subheading of the paper is over. This can help you summarize and differentiate between the different subsections of a particularly long paper.
Practice Makes Perfect
Annotating is a practice that gets better and more intuitive with time. The more you annotate, the easier it gets. You will begin to develop your own systems, abbreviations, symbols, and methods of shorthand note-taking. It becomes this natural dialogue with the text. Everyone has a different system when it comes to annotating, though the principles of the practice may be the same.
Here's to marginalia! Interact, engage, and dissect your text. Take joy in the wonders of learning!
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