How to best read

through your VCE

texts

How to
effectively
annotate
your texts
in VCE

Have you ever wondered how you canread

your books so efficiently that you will be able
to identify the most important passages,
quotes, symbols, authors views and values
etc. all in one go? Well, Im going to share
somehandy tipsyou can adoptwhile
annotating a novel that will hopefully help
you achieve this.
Warning if you are a reader who likes to
preserve their books and keep them crispy
clean, thisprobably isnt for you. However,
keep in mind that annotating texts is a
powerful step in getting to know your text
and optimising your essay responses.

Before we
get started,
what
exactly is
annotating
?

To annotate means to add notes to a text

where you provide extra comments or
explanations (usually in the margins of the
book).
It is very much an activity for yourself,
because it allows you to become anactive
reader where you are engaged in thinking
about the plot, themes, characters etc. as
you are reading and jotting down key
thoughts.
As a result, active readers are more likely to
become immersed in the story, absorb the
ideas better, be more open-minded and
therefore usually develop their own unique
interpretation of the text.
While annotating may not come so naturally
to some of you, this should definitely equip
you with a good starting ground!

1. Think of
your text as
a colouring
book

Use different coloured highlighters for

different themes. This way when youre
rummaging through your book to find a
certain quote to support a theme, say you
specifically only highlight romance theme
in pink, its much easier for you to find the
pink than to look through a whole book
highlighted all in green. Think of it as
creating a trail for you to follow throughout
the book. Creating a legend at the start of
the book (for example, in the contents page)
can help you keep track of which colour
stands for which theme.

2. Circle
new
vocabulary

Look it up and then write their definitions

next to the word. Next, keep a word bank in
a workbook or on a word document
containingany words youve learnt. Now
youve successfully killed two stones with
one bird youve broadened your
vocabulary and youve got a handy
sophisticated vocabulary list you can always
refer to when it comes toessay writing!

3. Write
notes in the
margins

Here you can summarise the significant

points of apassage without needing to reread the whole thing again. Use a pencil
rather than pen. If you dont like writing on
paper, you can always use sticky notes and
stick them to the pages. However, avoid
writing full comprehensive notes in the
margins. Youre not trying to write another
book inside the empty sections of a book.
Use a separate workbook or a word
document for that!

4. Be open
to different
interpretati
ons

Just because your teacher or a study guide

interprets the text in particular way, doesnt
mean that you need to agree. If you see
things from a different angle, thats an
advantage for you. Remember that youcan
be ambiguous with your ideas,
understanding a certain character or theme
from multiple perspectivesoffersyou a
variety of ideas that can be appliedin your
essay. This idea is echoed by English
assessors in the VCAA 2013 Examination
Report,
students should be encouraged to have
confidence in their own reading and
demonstrate a personal understanding of
their text, rather than relying exclusively on
commercially produced material. All texts
are complex works of art with a wealth of
opportunity for exploration. There is no
expected response to a topic, and the most
successful pieces were those that were

5. Got
burning
questions
that pop
up?

Dont dismiss what you dont understand!

Put down a question mark and do some
research. The better you understand your
text now, the greater understanding you will
have of events that occur later in the text.

6. Mark
literary
devices

Symbols, metaphors, alliteration, assonance

the list goes on. Use shapes such as
circles, triangles, squares and create a
legend in order to keep track of the different
literary devices that present themselves
throughout the text. Bear in mind that the
best essays always include a well-rounded
discussion about the authors choices in
literary techniques and how they develop
specific themes and/or characters.

7. Dog-ear
important
passages

Some key passages can be lengthy

(spreading over several pages), and it can be
a pain to highlight pages and pages of a
book (it might too much for your eyes to
handle too ouch!) so instead, fold the
corners of those pages down so that you
know exactly where that key event occurs.

8. Find
unique

phrases/quot
es

Youll come across the same quotes that are

repeatedly mentioned in class, study guides
and essays that other students have written.
To stand out, you should try to find those
quotes that are equally powerful but are
somewhat overlooked or underrated.

9. Annotate
study notes
and study
guides

These notes are written by another reader

who has developed their own ideas about
the text this doesnt mean that you
necessarily have to share the same ideas as
there is always opportunity to disagree with
anothers opinion. Draw smiley faces or
frowns in areas where you agree or disagree.
This can be the basis of an interesting
discussion in your own essay.

10. Dont be
afraid to
destroy that
book!

Yes, its nice to have a book crispy and clean,

but think of annotating as a way to own that
book! Show that you know the in and outs of
the text so well that if someone else were to
pick it up, they would have no idea where to
even begin! Having proper notes in the right
places and annotations will make the biggest
difference.

 Keep in mind that annotating does not equal

skimming (where you briefly speed-read
through your text). If youre planning to only
flick through the book, you are probably not
going to find those unique passages or
under-used yet powerful quotes. Take it slow
and easy!