How and why to Annotate a Novel: Tips from AP Central
Why annotate?
What the reader gets from annotating is a deeper initial reading and an understanding of the text that lasts. You can deliberately engage the author in conversation and questions, maybe stopping to argue, pay a compliment, or clarify an important issue—much like having a teacher or storyteller with you in the room. If and when you come back to the book, that initial interchange is recorded for you, making an excellent and entirely personal study tool.
Criteria for Successful Annotation
1. While you read, use marginalia—marginal notes (in this case, sticky notes)—to mark key material throughout the text. Marginalia can include question marks, stars, arrows, etc. along with your written thoughts/connections. Create your own system for marking what is important, interesting, quotable, questionable, and so forth.
2.Inside the front and/or back cover of your book, keep several sticky notes on which you write an orderly, legible list of "key information" with page references. Key information in a novel might include themes; passages that relate to the book's title; characters' names; salient quotes; important scenes, passages, and chapters; and maybe key definitions or vocabulary. Remember that key information will vary according to genre and the reader's purpose, so make your own good plan.
3. As you read, section by section, scene by scene, chapter by chapter,do the following:
- At the end of each chapter, scene, or section,brieflysummarize the material.
- Title each chapter, scene, or section as soon as you finish it with a relevant title, especially if the text does not provide headings for chapters or sections.
- Make a list of vocabulary words on a back page or the inside back cover. Possible ideas for lists include the author's special jargon and new, unknown, or otherwise interesting words.
Specific areas of focus
For Pygmalion: Focus on thematic ideas such as the following (Note: don’t try to address all of these—it’s too much to tackle in a single reading of a text. Focus on what resonates with you as you read):
- the importance of identity
- the superficiality of appearances
- societal stratification/ the rigidity of social classes
- manipulation
- gender roles (masculinity vs. femininity)
- power vs. powerlessness
- metamorphosis/transformation
- Other (What themes do you see?)
+ Symbolism in the text: Pygmalion does not have much symbolism, but clothing definitely plays a symbolic role
+ Characterization
+ Author’s use of language / purposes
For Macbeth: Focus on thematic ideas such as the following (Note: don’t try to address all of these—it’s too much to tackle in a single reading of a text. Focus on what resonates with you as you read):
- the danger of excessive ambition/greed
- the allure of power/tyranny
- reality vs. the supernatural/prophecy
- fear of the unknown
- fate vs. freewill
- manipulation
- gender roles (masculinity vs. femininity)
- Other (What themes do you see?)
+ Symbolism in the text: blood, the weather, light and dark, the 8 kings, dead children, nature, and clothing
+ Characterization
+ Author’s use of language / purposes