The brief guide on note taking/annotations showed me that not all
annotations look the same. When I was writing in high school, I mostly
highlighted or underlined things that I didn’t quite understand but I knew
that if it was there, I could look it back up later, it wasn’t as much annotating
as it was understanding the text. But I now see annotations as more
connecting with the text and understanding it on a deeper level than what
you might be able to look up online. For a reflective piece like “The Hawk”
that means paying attention to language and personal reactions. For a more
argumentative piece like “The Limits of Friendship” it means more of
analyzing claims and evidence. Both ways are useful in different contexts,
and they actually both help my essay flow a lot. When I start writing, I
already have ideas about what I’m going to write as I have already written it
down in my annotations. This helps me create flow in my writing and less of
just staring at a blank page, it makes me go more in depth while also helping
with my writing confidence.
As I annotated this first essay I kind of just jotted down random words that I thought might have had something to do with the actual meaning of the essay that I never really looked back on and tried to understand. This brought be back to when I first started annotating, it lookes like i just highlighted random things and wrote something else to match what was highlighted.
As the semester went on, I got better at leaving myself longer notes that I was actually able to understand and remember the true meaning behind them. Also, at the end of all of the essays I read I would leave some sort of end comment to the essay, or I would explain something that intrigued me. That way, when I looked back on my annotations, I already had a clear stance on the essay and what I thought about it.
It is a very common thing with everyone that when we read we just want to highlight or make some sort of mark on the page. But its more than that, its taking actual ideas and writing down notes in the margins. Annotation helps you get a clear stance on what you think about a reading, I believe it is something that is very important to do.
