Annotating a text—jotting down observations and questions—helps you read actively to answer the basic question “What is this text about?” You’ll often find yourself annotating, rereading, and moving back and forth between reading and writing to fully understand and analyze a multimodal text. A second or third reading will raise new questions and reveal details that you didn’t notice in an earlier reading.

The following techniques will help you annotate a multimodal text.

In his annotations for an Equal Exchange ad, Ren Yoshida asks why two words, empowering and farmers, are in different fonts. And he further questions the meaning of the difference.

Using sources responsibly: When you copy and paste images and text from the web, you can easily lose track of the original source. Keep careful notes whenever you read, view, or listen to sources, recording any publication information you can find. Consider making a working bibliography. You will write responsibly and avoid plagiarism if you follow citation rules as you take notes.