Reading Annotations

For every week with assigned reading, by 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday night:

• – Download a copy of each reading’s pdf through the link on the syllabus.
• – In blue, highlight a statement or two that best characterize the main point(s) of the article.
• – In green, highlight at least one claim or point you agree with or would like to continue thinking about.
• – In yellow, highlight at least one claim or point that seems unclear, confusing, or ambiguous to you — potentially a point with which you also disagree.
• – At the end of the article, insert one summary comment (no more than 2-3 sentences) summarizing the focus of the article and the evidence used to support it.
• – Upload the commented pdf to Canvas.

The instructions above should only be a starting point! Skim quickly through the piece before annotating to get a general idea of the contents. Circle words or concepts that are new to you, add comments in response to claims with which you agree or disagree, or insert a comment if a claim reminds you of something totally unmentioned in the article.

On Mac laptops, Preview is the easiest way to add annotations, but there are also many different web-based options like xodo.

A: An “A” set of annotations effectively responds to the main questions of the prompt. The response demonstrates synthesis of the article and the prose demonstrates excellent grammar and organization with few errors.

B: A “B ”set of annotations coherently responds to the main questions of the prompt. The response demonstrates an attempt at synthesis of the article and the prose demonstrates good grammar and organization with a few errors.

C: A “C” set of annotations adequately responds to the main questions of the prompt. The response demonstrates little attempt at synthesis of the article. The prose demonstrates passable organization, and fair grammar with several errors.

D: A “D”set of annotations responds to the prompts only at a surface level. The evidence used does little to support the reader’s response. The prose demonstrates consistent weaknesses in writing, such as a lack of development or organization, grammatical problems, or a lack of control.

F: An “F” set of annotations does not attempt to respond to the prompts. Displays little to no attention to organization and grammar.