Annotating Fictional Texts

1. Annotating Fictional Texts Bailey ENG III

2. What are Annotations? • An annotation is a critical or explanatory note or body of notes added to a text.

3. A well-annotated text will accomplish all of the following: • Clearly identify where the important ideas and information are located • Express themes and main ideas of a text • Reveal author’s purpose in developing certain characters, using Literary Devices and Figurative Language • Introduce a few of the reader’s thoughts and reactions

4. What Annotating the Text Will DO for the YOU!!! • Improve your concentration so you will not become distracted and have to reread the text. • Provide an immediate self-check for your understanding of the text’s key ideas. • Help you remember more. • Assist you in getting ready for tests on the material. • Negate the need of time spent in rereading the chapters. • Help you state ideas in your own words.

5. What Should I Annotate in Fictional Texts? • Plot Structure: You should be able to decipher the plot of the story by determining the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. • Character Develop & Analysis: Not how they changed from beginning, middle to end of the story. • Conflict: Consider the different types of conflicts (man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. himself, etc) • Setting: Know where the author has placed his/her story. Understanding the setting can provide a deeper understanding of the characters, plot & Theme.

6. What Should I Annotate Cont’d. 5. Narration (point of view, technique, flashback etc): Know who is telling your story and consider why. Identify the point of view right away and consider why the author chose this and why it is effective. 6. Diction, Language & Sentence Structure:Always be aware of the language an author is using. Is it descriptive, flowery, and romantic, or is it concise, terse, or economic?Make note of how the language affects you as the reader. 7. Symbols, Motifs, & Archetypes:The trick here is not only to identify them, but to establish what they mean and how they function. 8. Themes:The "theme" is kind of the moral, what the reader should take away as the main idea. The themes usually connects to author’s purpose.

7. What Should I Annotate Cont’d. 9. Irony (verbal, situational, dramatic):I will tell you this: a reader who is aware of irony is a sophisticated reader. Make it your goal to always be looking for irony. 10. Foreshadowing:Again, identify it and consider how it functions. If you think something might be foreshadowing, make note of it. 11. Repetition/ Patterns: It is always important to take note of when the author repeats something. It can either connect to a theme, foreshadow something to soon come and so much more!!! 12. Critical Theories/Approaches:This can be complicated and there’s a long list. Here’s a list of the main critical approaches: feminist, formalist, deconstruction, Marxist, etc. Don’t worry about knowing or not knowing what they are. I will inform you when we are studying a critical approach.

8. How Should I Annotate? • Whenever you underline/ highlight something in the text, you should write something about it in the margins.  • Always use the same symbols (be consistent!) Use your own words (paraphrase). 

9. Possible Symbols to Use: • Star: You can use a star in order to indicate when information is important • Question Mark: Question marks can be used to show when the text is confusing or when you want to write a question in the margins. • Circle: It’s great to circle words that you do not know. Also circle words that show the author’s diction, strong vivid descriptions and imagery. These words can indicate tone and establish mood! • Check: Place a check next to the theme of the passage. Then summarize/ paraphrase the moral lesson learned.

10. Possible Symbols to Use Cont’d • Numbers:Plot or the main events • Exclamation Point: Exclamation points can be used to show something interesting or surprising and moments of most emotional intensity (climax) • Arrows: You can use arrows to show connections between ideas within the text. World Connections, Text to Text Connections and Self Connections • Box: Setting (when and where; atmosphere and mood) • Highlight: Characters and characterization at the beginning, middle, and end (notice how the main character(s) change through the story)

11. Let’s Review the Annotation Check List Together!

12. THE BIG “NO, NO”!!! • Do not underline or highlight EVERYTHING!!! Be very selective with your selected text. Remember, you want to be able to come back to the text and read over your notes ONLY to understand the narrative.

13. Annotation Rubric A+ Criteria • The reader actively and consistently responds to the text at multiple levels of comprehension, interpretation, and extension. The reader uses a variety of annotation tools including underlining, highlighting, marginal notes, symbols, and color-coding. The reader marks the text for: central ideas, problems, and claims; literal and inferential evidence or reasoning that reveals the author’s purpose or supports the author’s message, claims, or recommendations; structure (B-M-E, for example); key terms, symbols, and domain-specific words and phrases. The reader writes notes in the margins that summarize, define, clarify, connect, or predict. Marginal notes may include questions or comments about the text. The reader demonstrates the ability to read and reread nonfiction and informational text actively, closely, and with growing independence.

14. Review the Example of Annotated Text With a Partner. Be sure to quickly take notes on any symbols or techniques that you notice within the text.