It is required that you acquire a copy of the text so that you can annotate in it.

Tools: Highlighter, Pencil, and Your Own Text

1. Yellow Highlighter: A yellow highlighter allows you to mark exactly what you are interested in. Equally important, the yellow line emphasizes without interfering. Some people underline, but underlining is laborious and often distracting. Highlighters in blue and pink and fluorescent colors are even more distracting. The idea is to see the important text more clearly, not give your eyes a psychedelic exercise. While you read, highlight whatever seems to be key information. At first, you will probably highlight too little or too much; with experience, you will choose more effectively which material to highlight.

2. Pencil: A pencil is better than a pen because you can make changes. Even geniuses make mistakes, temporary comments, and incomplete notes. While you read, use marginalia—marginal notes—to mark key material. Marginalia can include check marks, question marks, stars, arrows, brackets, and written words and phrases.

Use the following system:

Interpretive Notes and Symbols to be used are:

• Underline or highlight key words, phrases, or sentences that are important to understanding the work.
• Write questions or comments in the margins—your thoughts or “conversation” with the text.
• Bracket important ideas or passages.
• Use Vertical lines at the margin: to emphasize a statement already underlined or bracketed
• Connect ideas with lines or arrows.
• Use numbers in the margin: to indicate the sequence of points the author makes in developing a single argument.
• Use a star, asterisk, or other doo-dad at the margin (use a consistent symbol): to be used sparingly, to emphasize important statements
• Use ??? for sections or ideas you don’t understand.
• Circle words you don’t know. Define them in the margins.
• A check mark means “I understand”.
• Use !!! when you come across something new, interesting, or surprising.

Other elements of language you should mark for:

• Use a C for Claims: A claim is an assertion of the truth of something, typically one that is disputed or in doubt. Authors will make claims and then support or prove them.
• Use an E for Evidence: Evidence is the available body of facts or information an author presents to support a claim as valid.
• Use an S for Structure: Structure is the arrangement of ideas in writing. Look for words that signal text structure. Structures can be cause/effect, compare/contrast, chronological, problem/solution, etc.
• Use a T for Tone: Tone is the overall mood of a piece of literature. Tone can carry as much meaning to the story as the plot does.
• Diction (effective or unusual word choice)