Reading and Annotating Texts with Hypothes.is: Course Assignment
A key part of our course is reading and annotation in preparation for our lectures and writing assignments. You will complete readings before we cover the material in class; this way, you can guide our discussion by offering comments, questions, areas of confusion and additional resources for class review.
- What is it? “Annotation” is the process of analyzing and understanding a written work. Annotations are not just a summary of what is going on, but also an examination of the speaker, history, language, evidence, symbolism, imagery, tone (feeling), and anything else that catches your eye.
- What are the requirements? In order for a text to be considered fully “annotated”, you must include: 250 words of annotation (the box to the left defines what counts as an “annotation”). DO NOT simply cut/paste content from the internet; if you take info from other sources, put information into your own words and cite it (with hyperlink) for it to count as an annotation.
- Looking for student samples? Once you install the chrome extension, you will see LOTS of examples from former students on the “Public” page.
- How will I be graded? Here is a rubric. If you have any other concerns or questions, let’s talk about them 🙂
Submitting Annotations
Annotations will be completed using Hypothe.is (a system for annotating the web) on our Open Companion for British Literature I: earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com
- Sign up for an Hypothes.is account (here is a screencast tutorial if you need).
- You can choose any username you want; just make sure to record it on this spreadsheet so I can identify you. This will ensure that you receive credit/grade for your contributions.
- Add the Chrome Extension (for information on how to do this, look here).
- Locate the assigned reading in our Companion (here is a 1-minute video).
- Join our course group (link is on Blackboard) or you can annotate publically. I will be able to find all work you do through your username.
- Go forth and annotate 🙂
How to Annotate
Consider all the “types” of annotation you can create:
- Respond to questions: I am also annotating our texts and will often ask questions to get the ball rolling; feel free to respond to my prompts (or reply to other students whose insights you find intriguing). My username on Hypothes.is is “msallegra”.
- Glossary: Look up and identify/define difficult words and allusions/symbols for the entire class (or the entire world!)
- Questioning: Flag a passage, word or concept for discussion; this gives me a “heat map” of what we need to cover in class.
- Close Reading: Look up and identify broader historical, social or biographical contexts for formalist elements (setting, imagery, repetition, word choice, metaphor, etc.)
- Opinion: What strikes you as particularly beautiful? Strange? Hillarious? What confuses you? What biases do you detect? Feel free to share opinions on the text.
- Multimedia: Find images, videos, .gifs that help us better understand the text.
- Research: Find and share additional texts, links, and information that relates to what we are reading
