My active reading process sets me up for success in the later stages of my writing. Developing an argument, constructing paragraphs, and even the revision process becomes much easier when your sources are marked up. As Susan Gilroy puts it, annotating leaves you with “reminders of the unfinished business you still have with a text”. When I make my annotations, I try to think ahead to my ultimate use of the text. For example, if I already have my prompt, I look for places in the text that could be useful to quote as evidence or points that the author makes that I agree with or disagree with. By approaching the annotation process as the first step toward developing an argumentative essay, sitting down to find places in the text as support is much easier.
Some of the strategies that I use to annotate include paraphrasing statements, underlining and starring strong quotes, and looking up and writing down definitions of words or phrases that I don’t have a solid understanding of. Summarizing, according to Gilroy, is reading a passage “and then trying to put it back together again in language that is meaningful to you”. It is not unusual for me to use the verbiage that I use in my summary within my final essay. Recording my initial interpretation of the text is very helpful when trying to revisit it later on. I also tend to write reminders throughout the text such as “main point”, “I agree”, “I disagree”, or “makes sense”. These words allow me to flip quickly through the pages of the text later and find the phrases that I had opinionated reactions to. Annotations, according to Gilroy, “puts you actively and immediately in a ‘dialogue’ with an author”. All of these active reading processes makes the act of engaging with authors within your essay much easier, since most of the comprehensive work has already been done.
Annotated Pages and Informal Reading Response:
I am doing a better job of annotating with purpose. For instance, I am summarizing quotes that I have underlined next to them so that when I go back to look for quotes to use in my writing they are easier to find. Even if I am not necessarily going to use a quote, summarizing it is a good way to get an idea of where points are in the text. Overall, I am annotating with purpose now.
The surrounding context for this essay is that this essay was published in the same month that the actual publication was launched, January 2014. The publication the World-Post, which is a collaboration between liberal news source the Huffington Post and the Berggruen Institute on Governance. Yo-Yo Ma is an extremely awarded cellist, who traveled the world to perform. Ma is an advocate for STEAM education and global culture. The circumstantial context is reading this essay for the purpose of a multi-modal academic essay. I have some context on both Yo-Yo Ma and what STEAM education is, but not much. The intentional context is to explain the benefits of integrating art into science, and how their collaboration leads to a greater understanding of the world. Ma also explains the benefits of globalization to culture. There were not many terms that I did not know the meaning to, however, I looked up some terms to get a better understanding on why Ma included them.
The Enlightenment Era— European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that emphasized the use of reason to advance understanding
Globalization— how trade and technology have made the world into a more connected and interdependent place
Equilibrium— state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced
