annotating a book??

<p>okay so...
i'm going to be in ib english next year, and over the summer, we have to annotate books. i have no idea how to do this.
can someone please help me?
what are some key things i should annotate? etc etc.
thanks!!!</p>

<p>I had to do the same for AP Language and now this summer for AP Literature.</p>

<p>Annotation means to mark up the book and write in it. Generally, when you annotate, you write your reactions to certain events in the book, your thoughts on what's going on in the book, what you think will happen as the book progresses, and any questions you have.</p>

<p>Also, "good annotations" (according to my AP Language teacher) delves deeper into the book's meaning. This means that you look for literary devices (symbolism, imagery, irony, contrast, metaphor, foreshadowing, etc) and write in the book HOW you think this will influence the novel as it progresses and what effects it has on the reader.</p>

<p>My AP Language teacher was hardcore on annotations. We had to read a book every month and annotate it, in which she would collect it and read our annotations and grade us on it. Generally teachers look for a lot of annotations (and when I say this, I don't mean a lot of jargon, but what I listed above).</p>

<p>A lot of reasons kids my in class were afraid to annotate was because they felt they would be 'wrong' in their analysis. Don't worry about that because how you view the novel is how you view it, so if you're not sure if there's symbolism in a certain part of the novel, and you think there is, write it down as symbolism anyway.</p>

<p>Hope I helped! ^^</p>

<p>^^^ what he said</p>

<p>I had to do this last summer for AP Language and Composition. You're looking for stuff like rhetorical devices, themes, major events and their impact, basically anything that the author or characters consistently do or something that has a major impact on the story.</p>

<p>I'm not great at annotating either, so I'm sure someone can add to what I said, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head.</p>

<p>thanks guys ^^ it helps soo much!</p>