Throughout the semester, my annotations have changed quite a bit. At the beginning, for the first few annotations, I was focused mostly on questions like “what does this mean,” or “is this significant to this work?” This type of annotation is valid, however, most of the deeper understanding that comes with annotations comes from deeper insight and more complicated connections both within the paper and to other sources that are being worked with.
Now when I annotate my works, I am able to have a better conversation with the text. As I go through the work, I am able to make notes and ask more effective questions, as well as read deeper. This not only helps with my own understanding of the work presented, but also with my discussion about the work in class. This is the type of annotation that Susan Gilroy talks about in her excerpt from “Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard.” In here, she talks about the author having conversations with themselves as they work their way through a piece of literature, as well as engaging with the author to better understand the work and to be able to discuss it from a standpoint of understanding. I’m not quite at this point, but I am closer to this ideal of annotations than I was at the beginning of the year.
