Over the course of the year, I have annotated countless short stories, articles, reviews, and novels. Coming into the class in September, I had little to no knowledge of the numerous intricacies that contribute to effectively annotating a piece of written work. Over time, I have learned much more about how I like to read and write. The constant repetition of annotating articles has helped me to improve the quality of said annotations, to a point today where I can say I have found the best personal method for annotating so far. This did not come instantly, and was a learning process led by various assignments, essential questions, and complex articles. The first ‘phase’ of my annotations experience can be characterized simply as unorganized. …show more content…
“American Civilization” by Ralph Waldo Emerson is not only a revolutionary manifesto for its ideas, but was also revolutionary for my annotations. I experimented with a new method that addressed the problems identified in the past, and it worked wonderfully. I gave a short summary of every paragraph in the margins, mainly focusing on the essential questions of the unit as well as trying to interpret the meaning of the article. To my surprise, this was extraordinarily helpful the next day when we discussed the article, because not only did it give me a detailed road map of the article, it also forced me to closely read each paragraph for its basic meaning and connection to the essential questions. While I had found the method I liked, I needed to address the problems of actually annotating too much. I annotated too many phrases and summarizing every paragraph was frankly unnecessary. In my annotations of “On The Duty of Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau, I employed the same strategies that were used in “American Civilization,” except I amended the problems. My annotating is much more selective, and as a result, the more important phrases stand out. Also, the short summaries of paragraphs are not on every single one. Only the paragraphs that warrant an explanation are summarized and explained in order to keep my annotations concise. The two or three most important paragraphs on each page were chosen to be summarized and explained in regard to the essential questions. They make logical sense out of context, and I can flip to any page in the article and be able to explain what it is generally about. This fulfills what I am looking for in my annotations; a way to provoke me to think deeper as I am reading as well as an efficient method of referencing the article after it has been read. This can help me to better
When students use their skills to analyze literature, they must annotate to look for the main plot points or literary devices, locate the theme of the novel, and determine if the novel is an allegory. Even though analyzing a book is often confused with summarizing a book, they are entirely different things. While summarizing a book is just writing a few sentences about the most important points in the plot, analyzing a book requires you to look deeper into the story and find what the author’s purpose is. One technique students can use when to analyze literature is annotating. Annotating is a process in which students highlight or make a note of any literary device in the book, important plot points, or connections between the plot/characters to the real world.
In assignment number three, I was instructed to write a short summary about an article titled Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff. Learning goal number two is being able to write in various academic genres. I demonstrated that I understood this learning goal because I was never able to write in any other genre then free writing. This assignment helped me perfect my skills in writing short summaries about an article because it broadened my expertise in writing. Thinking of summarizing, you’d incorporate it as an easy task but for me it really wasn't. Writing a short summary on an interesting article was not easy. I started off by using the skills of learning goal number one and annotated the article throughout my reading. Writing in different
Not all annotations have to be the same length. For example, this source is a very short scholarly article. It may only take a sentence or two to summarize. Even if you are using a book, you should only focus on the sections that relate to your topic.
“To enable a conversation over the world’s knowledge.” Hypothes.is’s slogan represents exactly what the actual annotating platform does; it is a collaborative speech forum that connects people and their ideas from around the world. After using Hypothes.is on two different occasions, I have realized the ease and accessibility that the online software fosters. It revolves around the central ideas of knowledge and community. With the rise in technological advancements, it seems that Hypothes.is is new way to annotate articles using technology. Rather than the traditional pen and paper, Hypothes.is uses the internet and an innovative collaborative tool which enables users to read peer annotations and write their own.
The general purpose of both authors is to provide a resource that defines, states the purpose of, and explains annotating. "How and Why to Annotate a Book" and "Beyond the Yellow Highlighter: Teaching Annotation Skills to Improve Reading Comprehension" are both titles that explicitly state the author’s purpose. Otten provides steps and tips for students to inform them how and why they should annotate, whilst O’Donnell gives a more in depth analysis of the importance of annotating. She also writes to persuade her
The Norton Field Guide to Writing covers topics about writing and composing. Several of which I was already familiar with. In chapter 2, Bullock and Weinberg express how “Many readers find it helps to annotate as they read…” (16). I have become very familiar with annotating over the years. I often use this writing method to help me understand and summarize text I come across.
First, the article includes three advantages that the author sees to annotated bibliographies. These three include: the ability to concisely summarize the main or central argument in someone’s writing, it forces you to make connections to other literature, and it keeps you engaged on the relevance of your topic to the literature you are reading and vice versa (1). After that, the article includes the additional benefits of annotated bibliographies – these benefits being that they are a great resource for your adviser and a great resource to kick-start your memory of different resources (1). Personally, I enjoyed this aspect of the article because it explains how knowing how to write annotated bibliographies is an asset. Also, I agree that learning how to connect sources to others read in the past is an important aspect of being a successful
Annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author's point of view, clarity and appropriateness of expression, and authority. Creating an annotated bibliography calls for the application of a variety of intellectual skills: concise exposition, succinct analysis, and informed library research.
I could identify the author’s main claim and key arguments quickly. Furthermore, by breaking down the key arguments into components, I could understand them better. These made it easier for me to describe and express the author’s ideas in my own words for the summary writing. Additionally, I could distinguish the form and substantiate the validity and soundness or cogency and strength of the author’s argument. I could identify underlying assumptions, fallacies and attempts to appeal to ethos, pathos, and/or logos in the author’s argument as well. I also paid greater attention to the language and looked out for any statistical evidence and counterargument that the author uses to support his argument when doing the
The art of writing is a complex and difficult process. Proper writing requires careful planning, revision, and proofreading. Throughout the past semester, the quality of my writing has evolved significantly. At first, I struggled with the separation of different types of paragraphs, and I found writing them laborious. Constant practice, however, has eliminated many of my original difficulties, and helped to inspire confidence in my skills. As a collegiate writer, my strength lies in my clear understanding of the fundamentals of writing, while my primary weakness is proofreading my own work.
An annotated bibliography is a record of citations to books, editorials, and papers. Each citation is followed by a short summation, which are about 150 words by and large, explanatory and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The intention of the annotation is to enlighten the reader of the importance, exactness, and excellence of the sources quoted. The annotated bibliography will assist me as I write my research paper is that it will make the writing of the paper less of a struggle for that it will provide me some edification into making the paper more efficient and fluid.
Critiquing one’s own writing is a great way to help the author get better at writing and put different thigs into their writings. I have done some good things this semester when it comes to my writing and also some bad things. By critiquing myself I hope to better my writing. One of the most major ones is to expand on my details.
To conclude, the idea of teaching writing with CALL definitely offers much in the way of learning value. Particularly the concept of giving feedback to a learner in a variety of approaches gives more potential for learning than previously ever predicted. The many different forms of feedback discussed in this assignment isolate different learning methods and responses from a student. There are two studies that look specifically into how effective online learning environments are and both indicated that automated feedback adds significance to student writing, although students do not appear to enjoy the process as much as being in a classroom. These studies identify two important points, that learning how to write should be engaging and that other real people tend to make it more so. Of these two studies, one was a huge data sample and one was
Analyzing is one effective reading strategy a reader can use. This method is most effective by thinking about the writer’s arranged ideas. For example, viewing the developed topics and the structure of the paragraph is a way of analyzing. Annotating is beneficial to the reader who is analyzing the text. When using annotating, a reader
What is your experience with annotating? Do you think it benefits you if you’re being graded on it? And is it needed?