Employ techniques of active reading, critical reading, and informal reading response for inquiry, learning, and thinking.

I have been doing active reading and making annotations since highschool, but the way we do them in college has already made a big impact on how I read and review text. Active reading allows me to think about readings in different ways and form different questions and opinions about them. Using the different annotation types especially helps with the process of active reading too. 

Screenshot of “Questioning” annotation on page 2 in The First Incitement by Ross Gay

Right off the bat, I wouldn’t think much of this paragraph and would’ve read right over it without a thought, but active reading allows me to note a question that I can later respond to or rather go off of in the reading response questions. Active reading allowed me to state a fact and ask about the meaning of the paragraph. 

Screenshot of “Understanding” annotation on page 6 in The First Incitement by Ross Gay 

In this example, I gave the highlighted quote a couple thoughts to think about what it could mean. And after realizing what it meant I noted it down right beside it so I can look back at in the future for when I needed it for my reading response questions. This was a good example of an “Understanding” connotation because I explained the sentence and dug deeper into the meaning of it where some wouldn’t acknowledge it.  

Screenshot of Ross Gay Reading Response Question #1

As you can see, using the understanding quote in the previous screenshot allowed me to use it in my reading response questions to add bulk and show understandment to the question. Being able to simply label and identify annotation styles can help branch out into questions in other assignments which helps me a lot. 

Screenshot of page #4 from my Essay “Joy In A Chaotic World” 

Because of the simple annotation from a reading, I was able to thoroughly answer questions in my homeworks that I could look back at and make full bulk body paragraphs within my essay.