Over the course of the semester you will be required to annotate 14 readings. Once you factor in holidays this amounts to about one reading a week.

Goal: Low states writing assignment to help you develop your ideas, make connections with reading materials in this course and others, develop critical reading and thinking skills.

Here is a link to a good guide to annotating from Hunter College.

What I’m looking for:

• Thoughtful questions
  • Questions that challenge the assumptions of the reading
  • Questions about things you don’t understand in the reading
  • Questions about the methodology or perspective of the author
  • Questions about the central argument of the reading
• Connections/Comments
  • Connecting the reading to other readings in this class or other classes you are taking. How is reading connected to other things you’ve read? What are the parallels? Differences? Interesting insights
  • Connecting the reading to current events in the country/world
  • Comments about what you agree/disagree with
  • Comments about what the author does well and doesn’t do well
  • Comments that suggest how you would approach the subject matter differently.

I’m expecting each student to make between 3-6 annotations depending on how involved/deep they are. You could ask 4 questions or make 2 substantive comments, for example.

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