Annotation Essentials

What is Annotation?

Annotations are notes that you make on a text. They help you to identify the most relevant parts of the text, which will make it easier for you to respond to exam questions. Annotating a text also helps you to understand it better overall, as it encourages you to consider the meaning of different language and structural techniques.

Why is Annotation Important?

In a high-pressure exam situation, it can be easy to lose track of things or forget key points you thought of when you read the question.

Making notes on the text as you read is helpful when planning your answer, as your ideas are already noted down. You are doing all the hard work as you go along, so you will be more prepared when planning and answering the questions.

What Can Be Annotated in a Text?

 

• Ideas and recurring themes throughout the text
• Key words that might give you a clue as to the author’s opinions or aims
• Connections between different sections of texts, or topics within the text
• Similarities and differences between texts (for comparison questions)
• Language and structural techniques that create meaning in the text

 

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It’s important to consider what techniques have been used and why. For example, the writer might have used rhetorical questions throughout, or short sentences at the beginning of the text. You should think carefully about the techniques used, and consider:

• Do the techniques contribute to an overall tone or mood?
• What effect do they have on the reader?
• How have they been used to achieve the author’s aim?
• How do the techniques and their effects compare across texts? (for comparison questions)

Remember that when you are asking yourself these questions, you should always do so in relation to the exam question that you have been given! If you have been given a question on language techniques, you won’t need to annotate points that relate to the structure of the text.

 

Annotating Questions

Which Texts Should You Annotate?

 

Annotate the question, the texts given in the exam, and even your own answers when you are practising with exam papers!

 

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Reading questions: 

In questions that require you to look at only a few specified lines (e.g. ‘from line 20 to line 28’),  detailed annotations are useful. Focus on interesting words, phrases, and techniques, and try to analyse them in as much detail as possible.

 

Think about:

• The variety of possible meanings that a word, phrase, or technique might have
• How individual words or techniques contribute to the overall narrative or tone of the text

 

Remember that you can use same quotations to answer several different exam questions – just make sure that you  adapt your analysis of the quotes to suit the specific exam question you are answering.

 

 

Annotating your answers:

Once you’ve completed a mock exam or practice question, have a go at annotating your own work. Consider whether you have used the PEEL structure correctly, and see if you can think of any additional ideas that you could add in to your analysis. Reviewing your answers can help you to identify how you can improve your answers and deepen your analysis of texts.

You can also annotate your answers to writing questions. This will help you to consider whether you have fully answered the question. Also try to identify whether you have used a range of different language techniques, a variety of vocabulary, a range of sentence lengths, and effective punctuation. 

 

How Do We Annotate Texts?

When you have read all of the questions, read the texts to get an idea of the main ideas or themes.

Underline words or phrases that stick out to you.

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Once you have a general idea of what is going on, you can begin to annotate in more detail.

Specific techniques can be picked out, sentence structure or length can be analysed, and the effects of language can be explored. 

Here Are Some Ideas in the Meantime…

• Colour coding to show how the exam questions match up to the quotes in the text

 

• Underlining key words or phrases that you want to analyse in detail

 

• Circles to remind you of the most important parts

 

• Arrows to link your ideas about the text together, or to show similarities and differences between different sections of the text