In the first annotation, I used a method that I never had before. Usually when I annotate, I just use a pen and underline what I think is important. In the first picture, you can see that there are highlighted sections in addition to the pen markings. What I did in this annotation was, I used the highlighter to point out any of the claims that I thought the author was getting at so I could go back through and see if I wanted to use any of them to support my argument on big data. Then, in pen, I underlined some of the evidence that I thought I could use to support the claims. Also in pen, I wrote on the sides some of the questions that came to mind while reading, what my thoughts were on certain things, and what I could possibly use as a naysayer. By using a highlighter to mark claims and a pen to mark evidence, the annotations made it pretty simple for me to go back through the article and pick out the most important information that was there, instead of having to deeply analyze all that I underlined with pen in my previous annotations.
In the second picture, I annotated “Mind Change” by Susan Greenfield. In this annotation, I used a method that was new to me, called chunking. What you do in chunking, is you, instead of focusing on smaller details of the piece, you “chunk” the information into big ideas, concepts, main ideas, and/or claims. I liked this method because I often times have a little trouble picking out the most important ideas and claims that the author is trying to get across. I typically focus on some of the smaller details, such as quotes I may use as evidence toward my stance on something. By doing this, I already had the main ideas sort of laid out for me, and then I could go back and focus on the smaller parts. The only thing I didn’t like about this style of annotation was that I felt like almost all of the piece was important, therefore, I may have chunked too much. Overall, I think this style of annotation will work well for anyone who often times focuses on the small details too much, like me, because what I have realized, is that it is much easier to write a well constructed paper if you begin with large concepts and work your way down to the details.
