English 9 Annotations–Knoll

You’ve already written a summary

Definition: n. a comprehensive and usually brief abstract, recapitulation, or compendium of previously stated facts or statements.  (Remember the cannibals?)

Purpose: To condense a piece of writing. To show that you understand the important ideas in a text of any length or variety.  To make the author’s purpose and methods clear to someone who has not read the piece.

The next step is an annotation

Definition:  n. a critical or explanatory note or body of notes added to a text.

Purpose:  Same as a summary and also, in the case of research, to show that the work is a legitimate source to use for research (or not)(use the A-TACO tool) and to show how the source contributes (or not) to the research you are conducting.

Rules:

  • Write in the present tense.
  • Include the author and title in the first sentence
  • Be concise–summary should be shorter than the original
  • Include info in the order it appears in the original
  • Use your own words
  • Use “” around any of the author’s original words
  • Leave out your opinions, ideas, interpretations

All you have to do is fill in the template provided and you will write perfect annotations every time: Annotationtemplatesgeneric

Read this brief article about Animal Farm