Annotating on-screen
Although this discussion of annotating assumes you are reading printed pages, you can also annotate many kinds of text on-screen by using your software’s highlighting and commenting functions or simply by typing annotations into the text using a different color or font. If electronic annotation is not possible, print out the text and annotate by hand.
Annotations are the marks—underlines, highlights, and comments—you make directly on the page as you read. Annotating can be used to record immediate reactions and questions, outline and summarize main points, and evaluate and relate the reading to other ideas and points of view. Your annotations can take many forms, such as the following:
Most readers annotate in layers, adding further annotations on second and third readings. Annotations can be light or heavy, depending on your purpose and the difficulty of the material. Your purpose for reading also determines how you use your annotations.
The following selection, excerpted from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” illustrates some of the ways you can annotate as you read. Add your own annotations, if you like.