Annotating Fiction & Nonfiction
Annotating Fiction & Poetry
Mark and Make Note of these Basic Elements When Annotating Fiction:
Wise Words
What advice is given to the characters? What wisdom is shared?
Contrasts/Contradictions
When does the character act differently than usual? When does the character break their own rules?
Epiphanies
What does the character realize about themselves or the world? When does a "lightbulb" moment happen?
Motifs
What happens again and again in the story? What events, actions, words, images, figurative language objects, places, etc. are repeated?
Backstory
What happened to the characters in the past, before the text began? What does the character want?
Desires
What is the character's goal? What motivates them?
To What Effect or Purpose? (TWEP)
What big ideas are found in the text? What ideas apply to most human beings?
Structure
What genre does the text belong to? How is the text organized? What's the author's style?
Basic Steps of Poetry Annotation:
1. Read the poem aloud.
2. Read the poem and ask questions. Conduct research on the poem and author.
3. Read the poem and mark motifs.
4. Read the poem and ask TWEP? Then write your ideas.
Annotating Nonficiton
Mark and Make Note of these Basic Elements When Annotating Nonfiction:
Who?
Who is talked about the most in the text? Who is taking action? What role do they play?
What?
What's the topic? What's the problem? What's the main event?
When?
When in time is the event happening?
Where?
Where (geographically) is the event happening?
How?
How will the problem be solved, the procedure performed, or the task accomplished?
Why?
Why is the event happening? Why is action being taken?
So What?
Why is it important to know about this event? Why should we care? How is the event still impacting the world?
Structure
What's the genre of the text? What text structure does the text use? What's the author's writing style?