Annotating a book is the best way to make notes on the text. It also allows you to do a deep read of the book, where you note down your thoughts or impressions of that text. You may need to annotate a book for a class or decide to try it for deeping your reading experience. Select your annotation tool. Then, annotate the book by focusing on keywords, phrases, ideas, and questions so your notes will be clear and easy to review.
(A) Select Annotation Tool
1. Use highlighter, pen or pencil. The best and easiest way to Annotate a Book, is by using a highlighter,pen or pencil directly through the text. Choose a highlighter of any shade that makes reading easy for you, you can use yellow, light blue or green shade highlighter.
2. Sticky notes or tabs when you can't markup your book. Sticky notes or sticky tabs are great options if you’d not prefer to mark up the pages of your book. Get coloured sticky notes or tabs to mark pages or passages as part of your annotations.
3. Use an electronic annotation program. If you are annotating a book on a Kindle or any other E-Books reader, there are several options to markup text and taking notes at the same time.
(B) Annotate Phrases and Sections
1. Say no to distractions. Prefer to go to an isolated spot when you're at your school, like library or study hall. When you're at home, close the door of your room and tell others that they don't disturb you.
2. The book should be readed slowly and carefully. For annotating a book properly, you will need to give some time to the book and read the book slowly. Pay attention to each and every word in the text. Stop for a while and think about a passage in the text before moving further. Reading the text slowly will ensure you that you don't miss anything and this way you annotate the text well.
3. Underline important phrases. Make the important sentences underline. The important lines are written at the end of the paragraph or after semicolons.
4. Note the unknown words. The words which are new to you and you don't know the meaning of them. Make a list of such words and try to find out the meanings.
(C) Key Ideas and Questions must be noted
1. Note the thought in the margin. Try to do conversation with the text! And make your own thoughts about the book, and note them in the margin given in the book.
2. List the questions you have about the book. After reading the full book, try to find out the questions and list them on a paper. Ask yourself, that what is good/bad in the book.
3. Summarize each section. After reading every paragraph/section, try to grasp the main thoughts and meaning and note them in a separate notebook or at the bottom of the book's page.
