How do you annotate a book?

Question

I think that is what its called.
I've been annotating for a year now (for school), you know, making marks in the book, things like that. But it has never helped me. What the heck am I supposed to be taking notes on?
HELP?!?!!?
(right now, for summer reading, i am reading bless me ultima and a midsummers night dream)

Answer 1

The word annotate is defined as "to make critical or explanatory notes or comments." So, making marks IN the book is not what you should be doing. Your notes should be on the theme of the book, how it is written, what the author is trying to prove/disprove, if it is easy to understand, if you would recommend it to others, etc. Think of it as writing a critical movie review.

Answer 2

you have to find out what they want or expect you to know before you can write anything up ...
so have you seen some example exam questions ... for example could you write about the story and interest of Puck in a midsummers nights dream ... what did he do and what did he say ... and how did he escape the spell that was put on him ..

who are the main characters in these plays what do they stand for - what do they represent ... good, evil, stupid, lazy, arrogant, are they complicated people ... what were their big mistakes ... what did they do right ... how did they solve the problems that they had ...

goto the front of the play and write out the list of characters or players ...
then to test what you have read .. write a couple of sentences about who each of them are and what they do.
that would be a start.

then get an example of past exam questions - doesn't have to be about your plays ... just look at these questions and find out the kind of things they want you to understand about plays .. what do they expect you to know - how much detail about a main character and how much detail about the story.