My process for annotating a difficult reading assignment includes reading (and re-reading the work if necessary), asking questions, making observations, and connecting what I read to personal experiences. My goal when annotating is to better understand the writing as well as have questions ready to ask during a discussion about the reading. One example of strong annotations that I made was during the reading “The Limits of Friendship” by Maria Konnikova that we read early in the class. On this particular page that is linked below, I asked multiple questions challenging some of the ideas and opinions that Maria expresses, as well as taking note of some important details and information that she includes. I tried to find the balance between making too many or too few comments while annotating. I believe I found a good balance in this example page of annotating, trying to make at least one or two comments for each paragraph/idea.

Another example of annotations that represent my annotating process well is from the reading “Unfollow” by Adrian Chen. This reading was long and very unique, which made making good annotations very important in order to understand the major ideas. In this example of annotations, I asked questions about the reading that I hoped to find the answers to either later on in the reading or during a discussion during class. I think it is important to ask questions when annotating because it helps me remember what I struggled with when I return to my annotations later on. The other annotations included some that would be considered Understanding annotations as well as Extending. These comments are important because they point out important points that the author makes and what I believe to be important for me to remember when discussing the reading and eventually writing about it and using it as a source.