In earlier annotations, I spent a lot of time focusing on defining words in the text and making sure I understood the reading to the best of my ability. This is still true, but now I ask more questions of the text. When I am skeptical of a point that the author is making, or wonder why something happened, I pose a questions. I think this helps me to further understand what I am reading, because asking questions forces me to look deeper into the text. I also have found that I am more comfortable challenging the text than I was in the beginning of the semester. If I disagree with something, I make a note in the margin of my thoughts. When I go back through my reading, I see these notes and it helps me remember what I read. In earlier annotations I did not have as many texts to draw comparisons with, so I only compared the text to my personal experiences. Now that I have many readings to draw comparisons to, I find myself constantly connected ideas with the ideas of other authors. By drawing connections, I see what ideas people agree on and ideas that people differ slightly in opinion. Generally, I can see where both people are coming from, but somethings I side with one author and not the other.
Example annotations:
