Short story discussion

5/21/2020 Week 1, Section 2. Keywords and Annotation - ENGL 102 6388 Composition and Literature (2205)

https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/538751/viewContent/18808259/View 1/3

Keywords and Annotation

Digital literacy is a skill that is essential in education and in the workplace. You are increasing your digital literacy skills in part by taking this online class! How can we build upon those skills to prepare you for further work, especially in reading and analyzing digital texts? Information below shows you how to develop the skills of locating keywords and annotating a written text.

What are keywords? Within a piece of writing, keywords provide a way for you to locate key or main ideas in a piece of writing, whether informative, literary, or scholarly. Writers will purposefully use and repeat words throughout their writing to add unity and cohesion to the overall structure and organization. Repetition of a keyword may occur through a synonym (a single word or a phrase), such as using “sightless” or “loss of vision” for “blind.”

How can keywords help us to understand the theme or other literary element of a short story, such as plot, character, setting, or diction? Writers will frequently repeat words or use synonyms to underscore an important idea or concept. First off, if you come across a word, and you are unsure of its meaning, then make sure you highlight or flag it so you can look up its definition. Next, when reading for a theme or other literary element, locate repeated keywords that signal the literary elements of the short story. You should read closely and carefully, noting words or synonyms that repeatedly draw the reader's attention to features such as theme, plot, characterization or character, and a type of diction. In identifying keywords in a print book, you may have underlined or highlighted them. You may also have written notes to yourself in the margins.

For a demonstration on annotating a literary passage, view this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ8nhlzYx9o

Why should I annotate a text? The first time you read one of the short stories for this class, you will be doing what is considered passive reading. In order to understand and connect with the story more fully, you have to keep track of what you are reading, and you will want to mark things that stood out to you, or that you need to come back to later because you have questions. In short, by reading the story more than once and annotating it, you are engaging in active reading, which will improve your experience as a reader. You will comprehend more, remember more, react more, and possibly visualize more. Therefore, the reason to annotate is to become an active reader.

How can I annotate a digital text? If the text is in PDF format, you can utilize the highlight feature and the sticky note feature to add your comments. If you save a PDF to your local hard drive, then you can use Microsoft Edge (Windows) or Preview (Mac) to annotate the PDF.

For Windows, right-click on the PDF file in your file explorer, and select Open with > Microsoft Edge. Highlight a portion of the text, and you will see the annotation menu and options.

5/21/2020 Week 1, Section 2. Keywords and Annotation - ENGL 102 6388 Composition and Literature (2205)

https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/538751/viewContent/18808259/View 2/3

For Mac, use the Preview app's markup menu. Go to View > Show Markup Toolbar

To annotate an e-book, you can take advantage of the multiple features and tools available in your e-book reader, whether Kindle, iBooks, or Google Play Books.

How do I develop a strategy for annotation? Regardless of whether you’re reading in digital or print format, you will find it helpful to develop a strategy for annotations. With some practice, you can become proficient in organizing your notes in ways that not only help you understand the text but also in using evidence from the text in your own writing about literature, as we will do in this class. Here is a suggested format to help you locate keywords within a digital text:

Once you have identified a particular keyword, you can use the search feature to locate all the areas where that word is used. You can then make further annotations, such as highlighting or making a comment. In Adobe reader and in most browsers, you can use the CTRL-F command to find words.

As you locate keywords, you can then annotate as needed. Highlighting provides a quick visual for you to locate keywords if you are scanning the text later to locate pertinent information. You will also want to record your own ideas and reactions to the text, which you can do by making comments in the margin. To help you organize your comments, you could use the strategy of designating the left and right side margins for different purposes. For example:

Left side comments: Just the facts; present the summary. Chunk when necessary, i.e., summarize two to three paragraphs that seem to belong together. This strategy is particularly helpful to break down or unpack dense information.

Right side comments: Look back at your chunks that you noted on the left side. What is happening in those chunks? Use an action verb to describe what is happening. If you are reading for a purpose, such as answering a question based on the text, you can also use sticky notes to add those comments. Use the right- side comments for any additional questions or reactions to the text.

You could also devise a strategy that is color-coded, shape-oriented (circles, squares around text), or the like -- whichever makes the most sense to you and helps you visually return to keywords and sections of the text.

How do I develop written material from my annotations and comments? When you are reading critically, you will usually have a goal in mind, such as a response to a question or the development of a larger piece of writing, like the paper assignment for this class. You may find it helpful to summarize your comments so that you can transfer those main ideas to your own writing.

You will also want to document your source material, so keep track of page numbers. We will be looking at more formal MLA style documentation shortly, but for our purposes now, you will be required only to note the page number(s) of the material you’re bringing into your writing.

You can now move into using these skills to help you locate the keywords in a digital or print document, annotate it, and summarize what you have done.

5/21/2020 Week 1, Section 2. Keywords and Annotation - ENGL 102 6388 Composition and Literature (2205)

https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/538751/viewContent/18808259/View 3/3