This workshop for the Writing Center at Purdue University Calumet involves teaching students how to annotate their textbooks and take lecture notes in order to understand course material better.

2. I. Annotating
A. Definition
B. What it does for you
II. SQ3R
III. Applying your skills: The Annotated
Bibliography
IV. Taking Lecture Notes: Annotating in the
classroom

3. Annotation is a summary and/or evaluation
based off of any experience with media (books,
journals, websites, podcasts, etc.)

4.  Traditional Lecture vs. Discussion
 Traditional Lecture: Review your notes,
summaries, and readings after the class to
reinforce the material
 Discussion: Do all of the reviewing BEFORE
class so it is fresh in your brain, and you can
actively participate in the discussion

5.  Annotating
◦ Helps you engage with your sources in a critical way
◦ Allows you to familiarize yourself with previous
literature to create a strong foundation for further
research
◦ Helps you formulate and revise strong thesis
statements
◦ Helps you develop a point of view

6.  An Annotation System:
◦ Only has to make sense to the reader
◦ Should be consistent
◦ Text should be underlined rather than highlighted
to avoid “tunnel vision”
◦ Write in the margins of what you are reading, or
leave space for annotations in the notes you take in
class

7.  Survey
 Question
 Read Actively
 Respond
 Review

8. You can’t annotate a textbook if you don’t
understand the layout. Pay close attention to:
 Topic sentences
 Major ideas
 Details that support major ideas

9.  What are you reading about?
 What do you want to learn?
 What is the definition of that word?
 Why?

10.  Affective Reading vs. Informational Reading
 Affective Reading: Reading for fun.
 Informational Reading: Reading to retain
information and facts.

11.  Tie your frame of reference to it
◦ How does your unique outlook affect your view of the
text?
 Personal experiences
◦ Connecting personal experiences to similar events from
the text (i.e. loss of a loved one) makes the material
more relatable
 Connect new information to previous knowledge
◦ Building new information on top of what you already
know is a technique known as “scaffolding.”

12. Summary: If you cannot summarize what you have
read, it is possible that you did not fully
understand the material
Successful annotations should always include:
 Main ideas
 Enumerated lists
 Unfamiliar or important vocabulary

13. No! It only has to make sense to you! However,
here are a few useful approaches:
 Map, Cluster, or Web
 Lists
 Timeline

14.  Purdue University Calumet Writing Center
 WritingCenter@Purduecal.edu 219-989-2200
 Writing Center Handouts
◦ http://www.pnc.edu/engl/writingcenter/handouts.html
 Purdue OWL
◦ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
 Developing Textbook Thinking by Sherrie L.
Nist and William Diehl