Jim Roth’s Website

Marking or Annotating Articles

WHY?

Marking text from other authors is an excellent way to interact with and master the information. See it as your opportunity to have a dialog with the author.

HOW?

Read first--then mark. In other words, don’t mark text as you read it—mark text only after you’ve read and understood it. Marking text as you read it can give you a false sense of understanding.

Second, use highlight pens sparingly. Highlight pens make it too tempting to mark too much information or information of little use. In addition, highlight pens do not distinguish among different types of information.

So grab a pencil instead and consider giving the following guidelines a try.

WHAT TO MARK? THE BIG FIVE

Only certain kinds of information need to be marked for understanding. In addition, it’s best to mark different kinds of information in different ways. This makes a later review of what you’ve read and marked much easier.

Here are the types of information to mark and suggestions for marking each type:

Mark TERMS—using your pencil, draw a box around key terms.

Mark DEFINITIONS—again using your pencil, underline the definitions that go with those terms. Underline ONLY definitions.

Mark EXAMPLES—bracket examples and write “EX of _________” in the margin to the left of the example.

Mark LISTS—number lists of items or steps (enumerations) using 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Place the corresponding number at the beginning of each new item.

Mark REASONS WHY—bracket reasons why and write “REASON for ________” in the margin to left of the reason.

NOTE: This technique is an excellent way to study and absorb information in a textbook. Give it a try in your other classes.