Research Guides: How to Conduct Research and Write Your Paper: Take Notes and Annotate

Take Notes or Annotate as you Read

Read what you’ve found and be sure to take good effective notes as you go, clearly marking the page numbers where you found information. Read critically, not passively. Always ask questions as you read, and write down the questions and thoughts that you have while reading.

What does Annotate mean?

Annotate means to take notes, make comments, or write questions as you read a text. Annotating is a great way to remember what you have read, and it will save you time as you write your papers.

Annotating Strategies

There are different strategies and methods for annotating. Some people like to markup articles as they read them, others like to take notes on flashcards. Check out the UNC Learning Center's handout on annotating. This handout goes over different annotation strategies and will help you take notes.

Source: UNC Learning Center

Sample Notes from Reading

McKearney, Tommy. The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament. London: Pluto Press, 2011.

My notes:

Ireland’s separatist organization, the IRA, had ideological roots in the French Revolution. Members of the IRA tended to “be composed disproportionately of outsiders, the less well-off and the disaffected (page 92).”
What is the connection between the IRA’s French Revolutionary philosophical origins and the lower-class associations with the members of the IRA?
Is this connection important? McKearney posits that the IRA provided a vehicle for political expression by the lower classes, who felt that the traditional avenues of political participation were closed to them (page 92).
I believe a broader connection can be drawn between the participation of ostracized social classes in extremist movements and the degree of government oppression.
What degree of government oppression will prompt the ostracized classes into joining extremist movements? What is the tipping point? This might be an argument worth looking into.