How Annotation Reshapes Student Thinking (TeacherHUB) This famous, charming essay lays out the case for marking up books, and provides practical suggestions at the end including underlining, highlighting, circling key words, using vertical lines to mark shifts in tone/subject, numbering points in an argument, and keeping track of questions that occur to you as you read. The links in this section will introduce you to the theory, practice, and purpose of annotation. In other words, proper annotation is an organizing tool and a time saver. Why annotate? As the resources below explain, annotation allows students to emphasize connections to material covered elsewhere in the text (or in other texts), material covered previously in the course, or material covered in lectures and discussion. So, whether you're reading a novel, poem, news article, or science textbook, taking notes along the way can give you an advantage in preparing for tests or writing essays. This guide contains resources that explain the benefits of annotating texts, provide annotation tools, and suggest approaches for diverse kinds of texts the last section includes lesson plans and exercises for teachers.

Proper annotation allows students to record their own opinions and reactions, which can serve as the inspiration for research questions and theses.

Annotation is like a conversation between reader and text. Or, at least (according to education experts), annotation–an umbrella term for underlining, highlighting, circling, and, most importantly, leaving comments in the margins–helps students to remember and comprehend what they read. Writing in your books can make you smarter.

Annotate a book