How I Annotate Books as a PhD Student

[@alexaweiss2656]

honestly, this is one of the most realistic way of annotating books which is very refreshing to see at this day and age

[@lesliemoiseauthor]

Of course it's changed! We should adapt and grow in our pursuits. I love how transparent you are. And both gentle and rough are signs of your love for reading. And the key idea! I wish I could time travel back to my PhD so I could use this brilliant suggestion.

[@Giuliasaintx]

Yesterday is was fired from work. I really loved my work and what i was doing even when tired. So I was fired and i just want to tell this because i love your videos and i love how calm and composed you are. Even though this video speaks nothing about confused and sad feelings, I feel like this helps a lot. Your voice and everything else. I will use this time out of work to focus on the master’s degree that I want to do next year and see if I can arrange another work. Thank you for your content. I really enjoy your videos. ❤️

[@drlukewhite]

Ha ha! loved your Salman Rushdie story -- I'm sure he'd have approved that his book got read with care and annotated rather than just treated as a collector's object due to the signature!

[@winterburden]

Thank you so much for sharing this with us Cinzia!

[@LittleRedTeaCake]

Okay, but I love the way you annotate! Like don't get me wrong, aesthetically pleasing is nice to look at and pretty, but I am chaos and the way you annotate is very similar to how I do too! It's nice and refreshing to see someone else make the key as they go along and just, going for it. I love it.

[@paulinemoira8442]

I love the idea of using shortcuts or symbols to note themes quickly. I can't believe I never thought of this myself.

[@gina000]

A professor of mine writes something of an annotated bibliography for every text he reads, but I have yet to ask about his method. It is super helpful to see different styles of annotations. Thank you!

[@JessicaPawlitzki]

I'm also "team efficiency" when it comes to annotating my books. Books, to me, are tools to exercise my mind and dissecting it, writing in the margins, identifying themes and topics and indexing them make me happy. Therefore, pencils are constant companions to reading and I make sure that there's one in every purse I own at all times. Your Salman Rushdie story reminded me of an experience I had with Demian Lienhard (Swiss author). I had finished reading his book "Mr. Goebbel's Jazz Band" before I knew he was coming to town for a book reading of said book. Imagine an author flustered on where to place his signature in my book. The front matter was already occupied by my index, list of quotes and other short notations about the story.

[@rosamundraven]

These are good tips! Lots of inspiration to be taken from here and adapt it to my own studies! 🖤

[@tiborkovacs5317]

There is a homeschool curriculum called IEW & they teach a keyword outline for taking notes. But there are many ways to identfy define explain describe words it is whatever works for you. As an old dumbkoff haha I've been learning the parts of speech with a rhyme which is helpful I also like the questions Who What Where When Which Why How very helpful. Great vid thanks.

[@amber.cartomancer]

This is so wonderful ❤. I havent been in school for decades but I'm starting to study hermetics (just for me because I'm now old and have the time😂) and the books are starting to become more dense, where I need a plan on how to read them ❤😅❤😊

[@mashed1476]

i love the way your annotations are practical and not trying to be pretty, that's my approach too! although you are much more methodical with it, haha some great tips, thank you for showing and explaining your process to us!

[@eminimh]

thank you for keeping it real. i'm newer to your channel so i am curious about what major you are wokring on! wishing you well! :)

[@mildrumpus]

I discovered your channel through this video. Happy Reading! 😎📚👍

[@MrGadfly772]

I'm very disorganized in how I annotate. For me it is a conversation with the text that I have in the margins, so I find that very often my annotation as a reaction or a question that have of the text. It's very sloppy and all over the place but it helps me recreate my thinking as I read it. The goal for me is to interact with the text and to keep the flow of the thought both in my reaction and in what I am reading. I try not to think about it too much but scribble down my thought enough to recreate the thinking I had, but not so much to disrupt the train of thought of the author. You are far more organized than I am in this process. For me the system can quickly overwhelm my thinking as I try to make judgements about classification and the organizational structure. It really disrupts the fluidity of thought if I slow down enough to classify. I would rather have those organizational concerns for a later date.

[@goldogwolly]

As a fellow humanities PhD student, this was super helpful! Notetaking needs to be quick to be really useful

[@Maryz0lSunny]

I really found a lot of insight in this video about annotation! I will be doing more research and I needed to figure out how to tackle the annotation system in my papers and texts, I will 💯 will be using the advice you gave on creating a key in the front of the text as you read through the data! I appreciate your video!!!

[@TimeTravelReads]

It's cool to hear from an advanced note taker. I'm just a lay person who normally reads nonfiction. I usually just highlight the main point of the page or of a few pages. I don't know anything about literary theories.

[@gdp3rd]

You need to use a process that works for you. In high school I had an English (subject, not nationality) teacher that advocated a system much like yours, but in college -- over 50 years ago -- I developed a different system that worked better for me. I took notes, whether in lectures or while reading papers, in temporary notebooks -- whatever was at hand. I would later recopy those notes, being neater and adding additional comments, tags, etc., as a way to study and retain the material. I'm sure that sounds inefficient, but as I said it worked for me. The one error I made early on was using a fountain pen with non-permanent ink for recopying; a burst pipe over my lab desk during Christmas vacation taught me that lesson the hard way.

[@wannabekingpin]

you can put the tab diagonally too to give it "difference" if you must use same color (just decide which part goes to mark text prior and remain consistent). That way you'll have squares and triangles.

[@leptonsoup337]

Yeaaaah... I think I'm going to give this link to my students.

[@AyceMcGee]

My process of annotating is different. I have specific highlighter colors for themes, quotes, vocab, media references, things I loved, things that made me cry, and content warnings so it's easier for me to look through multiple books and find what I'm looking for easier. If something overlaps, such as a thematic quote that made me cry, I have a separate color for when things encompass multiple topics. Then use sticky notes to write down anything extra I might have to say that's too long to fit into the margins and hold that in place with washi tape. If I have something longer to stay I write it on an index card and hold it in place with book darts. On both the sticky notes and index cards I write the book and page number because I have lost too many in my lifetime lol. I can't read, annotate, and type at the same time because I know the second I open my laptop I'll get distracted with a million other things. Annotating is genuinely fun to me. Even if it's not for academic purposes I still love doing it with nearly everything I read. I love how everyone who annotates has a slightly different process. It's always great to see how other people do it.

[@Computra]

Yes! A new Cinzia video! I don't want to see pretty notes. I want to see functional notes! Have you ever watched Justin Sung? I've been working with my Dyslexic daughter to use his note taking suggestions.

[@mnickrowe]

I don’t know if you’d feel up to it for a video, I’m halfway through this video as I currently type and I am really enjoying how you go about annotating books. It’d be cool to see a sort of part 2 of going into detail so a pretend example subject or past section of your dissertation? (Hope that’s right) of why going through your book and highlighting this section and what notes you wrote to expand on your thoughts and then revisiting later and seeing it wasn’t as relevant overall and vice versa.

[@s.scottstaten1852]

Very interesting and useful, thank you!

[@lenschowbooks]

Now I don't have a clinical diagnosis but I for sure believe I am autistic and have ADHD and I must say, I adore your note taking because they make so. much. sense., and I learned a lot from this video! For me it often ends up being quite messy too, and that is in a way its own aesthetic, which I love! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas and for being so transparent with us.

[@kaylastarr3822]

I really love the point of needing to justify why you "damaged" the page when note-taking.

[@missytyrrell1]

Signed by Salman Rushdie?! 😮

[@Nicholas_is_my_name]

1:00 That's interesting because you kind of fit into an aesthetic regardless

[@SMunro]

I just stick a yellow stickynote in them as bookmarks.

[@tomworking6687]

Having grown up with dog eared annotated, paperclipped and sticky notes books surrounding me... hey. It's yours. I've annoyed first edition Frank Miller dark knight returns comics, but they were mine. You love a thing, you'll make it your own.

[@DaleyKreations]

I can't bring myself to fold over corners of pages let alone write or highlight in a book! XD I'd have to buy 2 copies before I could bring myself to actually write in one and/or cut and paste it apart for analysing purposes.

[@alicias.8482]

I think your method makes good sense. Those BookTok annotations look pretty but chaotic.

[@holyfreak8]

I cannot anotate any book. Is too much for me. It doesn't matter if that part of a text is importat or not. If it is, I memorize it 😅

[@abhimansouthside1659]

Hi Cinzia, have you read all the books cover to cover from your library?

[@CinziaDuBois]

No

[@Manole5500]

@@CinziaDuBois would you do a library tour someday?

[@nicoleholding]

Do you ever highlight or write notes as an eBook so there is no chance of losing your notes/book or do you prefer (like me) a physical book.

[@CinziaDuBois]

I don't have an e-reader, but I likely would as I have an ipad and I often highlight secondary resources on that

[@StampeCrusher72]

What are your color guide lines when you higting your books?

[@Vanbedda]

I am watchind this videos *because* I wanna know how to anotate a book non-asthetically. I too am someone who really doesn't a naturally asthetic bone in my body. It's too stressful!

[@JessicaPawlitzki]

Have you read "How To Read A Book" by Mortimer J. Adler or watched a video review about it? He's all about annotations that help you process the contents of a book.

[@Vanbedda]

@@JessicaPawlitzki Thanks for the rec!

[@Vanbedda]

@@JessicaPawlitzki Thanks for the rec!