Social Annotation: A Primer & Guide [pdf]

Using hypothes.is, our work here is to shape and share our reactions, questions, interests, and dis/beliefs as we engage in the act of reading. Reading is not simply an act of decoding or discovering some hidden meaning within a text; reading, which is also writing, is a way to add to the text and to turn that text into a portal to still more reading. 

Reading this way isn't automatic; it is a skilled practiced. We could even say that reading is a performance. There are moves you can make. Learning to read this way has already been part of your work as an English major—this course makes this work explicit. Making it explicit means naming the moves and practicing them. Here is a running (non-exhaustive) list of possible annotation moves I want you to rehearse:

• Direct Questions (for instructor or classmates)

• Open-Ended Questions (to prompt further conversation)

• Definitions (key terms or just unfamiliar terms)

• Etymologies (explore the history and origins of key terms)

• Paraphrases (restate what you think a key claim is)

• Internal Connections (draw lines within the text)

• External Connections (link text with related texts)

• News Stories (events that speak to or are spoken to by the readings)

• Relevant Academic Work (other courses taken or projects undertaken)

• Resonant Art (poetry, literature, film, music)

Additionally, avoid annotations that amount to thumbs up/thumbs down readings or critiques (i.e, “this is contradictory,” “I dis/agree,” “the author leaves out x”). These responses certainly reveal how a reader is engaging the text, but they do little, on their own, to put the texts to work for us. Ascent to the readings to see where they might lead you. To quote I.A. Richard's: "To blame the writer will teach us nothing. To wonder if we are reading right may" (12). To which we can add Casey Boyle: "When we get readings 'wrong,' it’s most often a case of describing a writer’s response in terms not of their own" (4).

I want to try out this set of required guidelines for this semester. Add a minimum of 6 annotations across all the readings assigned for a given day. As part of those 6, be sure to:

• compose at least 1 paraphrase of key claims

• make at least 1 etymology and definition of a term

• make at least 1 question about the reading 

The remaining 3 annotations can be mix of the above annotation types: in particular, consider annotating with etymologies and questions. Annotations can also include hyperlinks, images, videos, and gifs.  Please post all annotations in the ENGL 3875 (SP25) group. Additionally, be sure to tag your posts, at minimum naming the move you have made (i.e., "#internal connection," "#etymology," "#paraphrase"). You can also create tags for yourself that track themes/topics you're interested in (i.e., "#bodies," "#aesthetics," "#illness"). This work could prove useful when you start your own research project. 

To encourage a more engaging conversation and to model academic discourse, I will be assigning you all alternating roles with respect to annotations. For each reading we are annotating online, there will be two groups: launch and orbit:

• The launch group posts 2 days before class, annotating in the ways described here. This groups gets the conversation going. 

• The orbit group annotates the next day: at least two (and no more than three) of their annotations should be replies to launch annotations.

This procedure means that by the time class starts we will all already be deep into and familiar with the reading. It really is imperative that you keep up with your annotations: once you fall behind, as has been born out in previous semesters, there really is no catching up. There just isn't much wiggle room in the schedule. More importantly, the value of the annotations largely inheres in their sociality. Annotating on your own and asynchronously simply isn’t the same.