How to Annotate a Book: A Simple System With Pencil, Highlighter, Tabs and a Symbol Key

Most people who want to know how to annotate a book have tried once already and ended up with a page that is either untouched or entirely yellow. The fix is a system small enough to use without thinking: a pencil for words, one highlighter used sparingly, a few tabs on the page edge, and a five-symbol key written inside the cover. This guide sets that system out, shows how it changes for library books (where you mark nothing at all), and walks through one page annotated step by step. For shorter readings such as articles and handouts, the guide to annotating a text covers the same habits at a smaller scale.

How to annotate a book: the four tools

One pencil, one highlighter, a few tabs, five symbols.

Each tool does one job. Keeping them separate is what makes the marks readable months later.

Pencil suits margins because it is quiet on the page, it can be corrected, and it does not bleed through. A highlighter is the loud tool, so it gets the least use. The University of North Carolina Learning Center's handout on highlighting warns that highlighting tends not to be a very effective reading strategy on its own, because sorting text into important and unimportant can crowd out thinking about it. Its tips include highlighting only after you reach the end of a paragraph or section, and limiting yourself to one sentence or phrase per paragraph.

Make an annotation key before you start

A key is a short list of marks and what each one means, written where you will see it. Eastern Washington University's Writers' Center guide to annotating a text recommends including a key or legend that says what each marking is for, and using a different marking for each type of information. The UNC Learning Center's handout on annotating texts suggests three symbols to start with and then asks you to think about what other symbols would make sense to you. Here is a five-mark key built on those suggestions.

The method, section by section

The UNC handout's last tip is to separate reading from annotating: read through a section first, then go back and mark it. The EWU guide goes further, with three passes (survey, skim, read). For a whole book, a two-pass rhythm per section is practical.

1. Preview the book

   Before chapter one, read the contents page, the introduction and the chapter headings. Note on the inside back cover what the book seems to be arguing or telling.

2. Read a section without a pen

   Read a chapter section, or a few pages of fiction, straight through. You will mark better once you know where the passage is going.

3. Go back and mark one key line

   Underline or highlight the sentence that carries the section: a claim, a definition, a turning point. One per section is a good ceiling.

4. Add a symbol and a few words

   Put the symbol from your key in the margin and write a short note in your own words: what the line means, why it matters, what you doubt.

5. Tab the page if you will need it

   Put a tab on the page edge if you expect to cite it, discuss it or reread it. Write a word on the tab if it has room.

6. Summarize at the chapter end

   On the last page of the chapter, or a slip tucked there, write two or three sentences on what the chapter did. UNC suggests asking yourself how you would explain it to a friend.

Annotating library and borrowed books: tabs only

A library book belongs to the next reader as well, so the method changes: mark nothing on the page. Washington University Libraries' preservation guide, Dos and Don'ts of Book Handling, says to take notes on your own paper, or buy your own copy if you must mark in a book. It advises against pencils, pens, highlighters and sticky notes, explaining that pens and highlighters can bleed through pages and sticky notes leave residue. For saving your place it recommends a bookmark or a piece of scrap paper, and warns against folding corners.

• Use paper slips as tabs. Cut strips of scrap paper, write a page number and a word on each, and lay them between the pages. They do the tabs' job without adhesive.
• Keep the key and notes on a separate sheet. Write the page number, the symbol and your note on a single sheet that travels in the book; it becomes the margin you are not allowed to write in.
• Copy key lines by hand, word for word. Note the page with each quotation so you can cite it after the book goes back.
• Check before you return it. Take every slip out. A forgotten slip with your notes on it is a note you have lost.

A worked example: one page, annotated

Here is an example of how one paragraph from a history book might be annotated with this system. The paragraph is a sample written for this guide:

1. First pass: read the whole page without marking.
2. Second pass: underline the last sentence, the claim the chapter is about, in pencil. Add a highlight to it, because it is the one line on the page you expect to use.
3. In the margin beside it: * and the note main debate: caused or sped up?
4. Beside cut the cost: ? and how much? check the figure in the notes.
5. Circle interior and write here: inland farm regions in the margin.
6. Put a tab on the page edge with the word debate on it.

Six small marks, one highlight, and the page now answers three questions at a glance: what the argument is, what to check, and where to come back to. When you write about the book, copy the starred lines and their page numbers into your notes; turning highlights into notes describes that step.

Pitfalls

• Highlighting on the first read. You do not know yet what matters. UNC's tip is to highlight only after finishing the paragraph or section.
• Marks without words. A line under a sentence says it caught your eye, not why. Add a symbol or a few words every time.
• A key that changes halfway. If the star means evidence in chapter two and a favorite line in chapter nine, neither meaning survives.

Tips from university learning centers

• Preview before you read. UNC's highlighting handout suggests looking through headings, bold words and end of chapter questions first, so you know what the chapter will focus on.
• Know your purpose. Decide what you need to know or do after reading, and mark what serves that purpose.
• Summarize in your own words. UNC notes that summarizing can be more effective than highlighting or annotating, because it shows you what you do and do not understand.
• Mix description and reaction. The EWU guide recommends including descriptions of the text as well as your own reactions, so you can later find key quotations and recall your thinking.

A key works best with a fixed set of marks; the annotation symbols chart has one, and annotating a text so your marks become a record covers shorter readings.

A book annotation system lasts when it is small: one pencil, one highlighter, a few tabs and a five-symbol key inside the cover. Read a section before you mark it, give each section one key line, a symbol and a few words of your own, and tab only what you will need again. For library books, move the whole system onto paper slips and a separate sheet. The other guides to keeping highlights as a record cover what to do with your annotations once the book is finished.