In the past, annotating was something we worked with a lot. Not necessarily how we’ve been doing it in English 110. In the past, my other teachers would give us readings, we would annotate them. Instead of focusing on what we thought of the reading and writing down our own ideas, we had to find metaphors, personification, and dissect essays and readings that way. We were never able to have our own approach to reading and taking notes on what we found interesting or important, which is where this course was very different. I loved being able to highlight what I personally thought was of importance, and being able to share these findings with the class. It also helped me with understanding the material we were reading in class, and helped with thinking of ways to incorporate these readings into my writing.
When annotating in this class, some of my strategies included highlighting important dialogue and phrases, and also keeping in mind when I could use them in my future draft. This allowed me to develop my own opinion, as well as understand deeper meanings within the texts. I would also be sure to underline words I didn’t know so I could look them up later and get their definitions, and if I happened to find something important, I would not only set it aside for later, but I would typically try to rewrite it in my own words and make sense of it on my own. In a passage written by Susan Gilroy, She goes through the process of annotation and how it can help. In her words she states, “annotating puts you actively and immediately in a ‘dialogue’ with an author and the issues and ideas you encounter in a written text.” This dialogue she talks about is between the reader and the text. Understanding how this dialogue works is what will help you soak up the information easier. This is what we call in English 110 “interacting with text”, and I’ve learned during this semester how important this skill is.
