Description:
Annotations are notes that you make while reading. Annotating a text by hand encourages you to move past what Adler and Van Doren call the “elementary” level of reading – where we simply read the words on the page – to the analytical level. Some examples of annotating include definitions for unfamiliar words or concepts, arguments with the author, connections to other parts of the work or other texts, individual responses to ideas being discussed in the text, notations about sounds of words and the structure of the actual poetry or prose, first attempts at interpretive suggestions, underlining or circling of keywords or phrases, etc.
Requirements:
1. Choose either the reading from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography or C.S. Lewis’s “Learning in War-time.” You will have to create a PDF or Word document of the reading in order to annotate it.
2. While annotation is a practice best completed in print and by hand, we will be doing it digitally for the online version of this course. You can add annotations in both a PDF viewer, like Adobe or Preview, and in Word.
3. Your annotations should demonstrate meaningful, thorough engagement with the text. In other words, I should see you asking questions, reflecting on what you read, making connections between ideas, agreeing and disagreeing, etc.
