Reading to Retain Information

Annotation (also called mark-up) can be physical or digital. It's any underlining, notes, highlighting or other symbols you make on a page. 

If you're using a library's print copy, respect the next reader by NOT marking up the text. Instead, you can photocopy or scan pages to add to your class notes as needed.

Pay attention to the author's claim. Differentiating between the claim and the topic is especially important. What is the author's purpose or intent in writing about the topic? Are they narrating a story, or categorizing branches of knowledge? 

What is a claim? 

It is an arguable, but plausible, opinion on a topic. It's the result of a targeted research question. Ideally, the claim will be specific and narrow enough for the space allotted in the book or journal. 

• Handout from Carnegie Mellon on thesis statements and topic sentences.

Track how the claim is developed across paragraphs.

Write a word or phrase next to each paragraph to remind you of the main idea.

• Note transition words or pivot words. Contrasting, complementary, and cause-and-effect transitions can signal how an author is developing their argument. 

More information about annotation from the UNC Writing Center.

Circle main people and concepts that require a definition. 

More information on good notes from Cornell: 

From Your MA in Theology: A Study Skills Handbook, p. 8

• Take a historical perspective. Tell the story of how this view or practice came about, what it developed from, who advocated and who opposed it. 
• Contextualize. Put the authors and the practices you are engaging with into their context. What period of time? What was going on politically or in other ways in the wider world at the time? What denomination is this material from? What part of the world is the author writing from? 
• Make comparisons. How does this thinker compare with another? How does thinking in this period of time or in this ecclesial tradition compare with others? 
• Allow theory and practice to critique each other. How does what a certain thinker or writer say match up to what you have experienced or what you know from your practice? Conversely, how does this thinker or writer offer a helpful critique, perhaps even an uncomfortable critique, to your practice and to the way you have understood your experience? The more uncomfortable you are the more you will learn. 

The authors (Zoe Bennett, Carol Reekie, and Esther Shreeve) also encourage students to think about the role reflection plays in your academic work. Contemplative practices like prayer, meditation, art-making, journaling, or even talking to yourself can play a powerful role in how you retain and use information from classes and readings.