Did you accidentally stumble upon a video of a person discussing their annotations and highlights of a certain book, and want to do the same? Or were you assigned to annotate your next read by your literature teacher? You probably directly made a beeline to watch some tutorial videos, but despite buying all the exact supplies that were shown in the video you got different results, and did not have a single clue as to what you should do. You might have followed the aesthetic but disregarded the process.
It is completely normal to wish to annotate but have absolutely no clue as to how. I believe that most of us at some point in the beginning of our annotation journey felt completely lost, I was not an exception. As an AP Literature student, I had to find the right tools and techniques to annotate both personal reads and assigned books with ease, and while it took some time to find my own preference, I did find it, and so will you. Let’s have a look at a few basic steps to set yourself on the right track in your annotations.
Define the purpose!
Ask yourself first. What is your task? Why do you want to annotate your book? Is it to preserve memories of your first read and comment on things? Or is it just to notice more detail? based on the purpose, you would be able to identify not only the direction but also the content of your annotations. For instance, if your teacher asked you to have an in-depth read of a text, you might have to focus on the important details like themes, diction, tones, setting, references, characters, and so on. In the more academic annotations, you might have to pay more attention to those details.
On the other hand, for more casual (personal) annotations you might just highlight the ideas, phrases, and hints that you find notable. What do I mean by that? I believe we all had those times in our lives when we were reading a book and a certain phrase or detail just caught us off-guard. You might even have looked around and thought, “Did you see that? How is nobody talking about this?”. This is your moment for annotation. Be it a cringe, ridiculous, fascinating, or well-thought-out moment, if you find it interesting, annotate it.
Experiment!
Annotating books is an extremely personal activity. Whenever you read a book, you might notice completely different details and thus have a different interpretation of it. Similarly, annotating the same way that somebody else does might not work for you. Colorful highlighters and sticky notes may be something that brings joy into annotating and makes it all the more fun, but If it doesn’t that’s alright. Let me explain. Some people prefer to have a much more minimalistic approach to annotation. Some prefer to just write down small monochromatic notes on the margins, while others might add more color, stickers, and post-its.
Tabs
When reading, you might want to look out for specific things like character development, romance, battle scenes, etc. Make a list of the colors and assign the things you want to keep the tabs for. You can change them whenever you feel the need to. It is not a lifelong commitment to have the blue tabs keep track of the sad scenes, I promise. If you think it's necessary change them. However, If you don’t want to make the list it is ok. You don’t have to assign meaning to every color. You can just put the tabs wherever and whenever. The list is only there to help you understand what the tabs are there for. And last but certainly not least, where to annotate?
Some people write notes on Post-it notes that they later stick to the pages. Some create a reading journal, some highlight, and some write on the margins, all of these are valid. You may think, “How can I write in a book?”. Trust me, the first time I annotated with highlighters was the moment I made it clear to myself that I would never commit such a crime, but then I realized I much prefer underlining and writing on the margins with a black ballpoint pen. If you feel comfortable highlighting, go for it. If you prefer writing on post-its or margins, go for it. If you hate leaving marks in your books but still want to annotate, that’s completely fine. I have tips for you as well.
This is a tip for those who don’t want to write in their books and those who wish to annotate but have a library or borrowed book on their hands. I got you.
2. Transparent sticky notes.
You can get them on Amazon if you wish but make sure to check the prices first. You can either use them as regular post-its or stick them in the middle of the page and underline, highlight, and write all you want. Most of them are easily removable.
3. Reading journals.
If you think that Post-its are too expensive for no reason, and they are actually, get a notebook. Either assign one to every book you read or get a big one to fit multiple book annotations. Write the title, page number, and line, and comment as much as you wish while reading.
4. Highlighting stripes.
You can also get those on Amazon. They look like thin transparent tape; make sure they are for annotation. Stick them on the line that you would like to highlight. You can remove them at any time.
Happy annotating!
Nadiia
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