Annotation Blog Post

Oh lovely annotations! In these rather complex PDFs we have been reading, they are extremely helpful in being able to understand what exactly the author is saying. The authors are can get verbose at times, bordering on pretentious, and it makes a huge difference having the annotations. They can get a little distracting at times I must admit, but they really drive home the key concepts. If you see an annotation somewhere you know that that piece that is annotated must contain some sort of significance so it allows you to really know what parts to focus in on. The annotations also clear up so much. Sometimes the author is really not making too much sense and the various annotations allow you to clear up most of the questions you may have. Honestly, I do not know how I would have made it through some of those PDFs without the annotations. They also really tie everything together. Sometimes what we do in class and read for homework does not connect right away so it is good that the annotations do that. They also assure me that I am not the only one who thought Wuthering Heights was awful.
As far as annotating what I read, I am not a huge fan. I know that it is super helpful and it does help you sum up and really think about what you read but I still do not like it that much. Sure, it is great for small passages but as far as entire books go, I find it extremely monotonous. My background is in AP English and with all of those complex passages that we had to read and write essays on, annotating was a must. If you did not annotate, you would usually miss some of the points the author was trying to make, as well as the all so important techniques that you had to point out. Basically, annotating was essential on the AP test, but I still find it excessive for books. For starters, if you have to write some sort of paper on a novel, it is usually general and looking for theme as opposed to super specific and detailed. Also, if you are reading a book, as I am not an avid reader, you usually just want to go through it and get the information as opposed to really sit there and spend tons of time annotating. Therefore, because of my many years of reading rather boring and long AP books, I am not a super fan of annotating. I do think that it is helpful, but again, because of my experiences in the past, I tend to find it more of a hinderance than a help in long novels. Although annotating is beneficial in shorter and more complex passages, such as the PDFs, I generally tend to not like it for longer novels.