Annotations

Making Annotations Guide

For every circle, underline, highlight on your paper you must write words that describe it.

Annotations are used to help you quickly find or recall important information in anything you read or view. By marking the important aspects of the text it will allow you to make deeper connections to the material. Effective annotations allows you to quickly recall information for notes, assignments, writing and assessments.


  • Identify main idea

    1. Put a star at the beginning of the topic sentence and claims.

    2. Bracket off each main idea in the margins and write a few words describing it.


  • Identify important details

    1. Important people, setting, events, actions, evidence, explanations.

    2. Highlight and annotate.


  • Circle words you don’t know and then define them

    1. By looking up the words you will be able to understand the text better.

    2. Increase your vocabulary

    3. If it is still unclear use the substitution method

      1. Substitute a synonym or a short definition into that word’s place


  • Summarize pages or paragraphs into a few short sentences on the left margin

    1. Allows you to quickly find information or specific passage.

    2. Write an analysis or interpretation of what you think is happening.


  • Make Connections and Ask Questions on the right margin

    1. To different parts of the text that are related or connected

    2. To other literature you've seen or read

      1. Books, comics, news events, poems, songs, plays, movies,etc.

    3. To real life events (In history we can see cause and effect, themes and trends throughout history.)

      1. Personal

      2. Historical

      3. Literature

USE YOUR ANNOTATIONS TO GUIDE YOUR NOTES

Video Resources on Annotations