When annotating my papers first, I read through the whole reading, almost skimming through to try and get the main idea of what it is about. With the shallow understanding I had of the text, I then went back and did a more in-depth reading where I highlighted main ideas, important points, and anything that intrigued me. Doing so allowed me to get a deeper understanding of what the main points where about. After highlighting I would comment on certain parts: rephrase a section so when going back I could find what I wanted faster, connected parts of the essay to other parts seeing a common thread throughout the reading. I also would give my opinions on certain ideas, occasionally agreeing or disagreeing with the author. This helped me feel more engaged with the text and understand what it was about better. I was also able to draw from my own personal experiences and tried to connect myself to the text, to see if the points being made related to me.

My annotations made it easy for me to come back to the text and identify the sections that stood out to me the most. Rereading the annotations I made allowed me to find parts that I could expand upon and make more fleshed out comments in my journal. Being able to annotate sections of the text I found important and put them into my own words enabled me to be able to expand on the ideas since I had a deep grasp as to what the text was saying. Specifically, parts that I agreed with or disagreed with were emphasized in my journal. I am able to take quotes from the reading and give my analysis on them along with my own personal experience connecting myself to the point made by the author. This allowed me to better show my agreement and disagreement with the text.

I feel pretty good about annotating since I have a lot of experience annotating texts even full books sometimes from high school. Annotations are something that I don’t feel like I have significant progression in due to my early exposure to thorough and in-depth annotating giving me the ability to annotate at a higher level. And my ability to comment on texts in my journal displays my ability in deeper thinking since I am able to draw my own conclusions from the text as well as add in my own personal opinions and experiences.