The way I approach a reading piece for any class is very specific. I always read through the piece first without any annotations. This is so I can understand the premise of what I am reading, and I can grasp why the author is writing the piece to begin with. The second time I read the piece is when I begin to dissect it. When annotating something I am reading I often use two different writing utensils. I often use a highlighter to mark complete quotes that I can later use for an essay. I also use something like a pen to circle key words, and to express my own ideas about a paragraph that would take too much time to highlight the entire thing. The first thing I look for when annotating is key ideas. Harvard Professor Susan Gilroy states “Mark up the margins in your texts with words and phrases: ideas that occur to you…” I often do this type of thing with the pen because it may just be a word that triggers an idea for a point I may want to enhance later. When annotating I look for thought provoking ideas. Although pieces of work are filled with loads of information, a person using it as a source must look past the fillers to find the useful information. This can be different for every person depending on what they are using the piece for.

The blog post that I am most proud of shows that I can integrate ideas of others into my own writing because I integrate a quote of Hallward’s, but then I make good text to world connections showing my understanding of the text. In her text Gilroy asks “How does it [the text] compare (or contrast) to the ideas presented by texts that come before it?” In my blog post “Hallward’s Ted Talk: A Resonating Claim” I connect Hallward to a previous text we read about Angela Davis. By marking up both texts accurately I can use them to compare, and enhance the ideas I am making.

Here is the link to the blog post I am most proud of:

Hallward’s Ted Talk: A Resonating Claim

Examples of my annotations: