Reading at University | Annotating & Analysing Books

I’m a literature student. We all know that. I completed a three year undergraduate in English Literature at Liverpool John Moores, and I now study for a Masters in Victorian Literature at the University of Liverpool.

…you could say I’m well versed in reading at a university level.

I’ve studied literature throughout my whole education, and I’ve found the best ways to annotate and analyse those books you’re forced to read. Today, I thought I’d share my tips with you. This may help fellow English students, or it may help those of you wanting to engage with your reading on a deeper level. So, without further ado, let’s get into it:

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I never really bothered with annotating my books in the first year of university. Stupidly, I thought I’d be able to remember all the littles quotations and scenes I wanted to write about. A fool’s error. You’ll never remember. Never. Start annotating your books. Please. Because when it comes to assignments, you’re confronted with a blank Word document and a lifeless book. No colour. No sticky notes. Nothing. Just the pages it was born with.

My biggest advice is to find a method that works for you – it can be highlighting in neon colours, underlining with ruler and pencil, putting bright sticky tabs on the corner of your page, or writing a little paragraph on a sticky pad. Anything. I have two preferred methods:

1. If I’m annotating an edition I love, so basically the Penguin English Library collection, I will use a pencil to underline important quotes. With this will be a little sticky note reminding me why I highlighted it. I tend to use my dinosaur sticky pads from Cath Kidston, but you can find these anywhere for cheap.
2. If it’s in any other edition, anything but my PELs, I either use a colourful pen or a pastel highlighter to mark the quotation. So, if I’m ever flicking through a book during essay writing, the quotes stand out. Again, I will usually write a little paragraph explaining why I highlighted it – I usually do this with my sticky notes, but I’m not afraid to use pens in these books!

The next question you may ask is how do you know what to annotate? Well, that’s a little more difficult…

If I’m lucky – and, thankfully, I’ve always been this lucky throughout my degree – I will receive a module handbook with all the essay questions in. So, before reading, I will brainstorm possible themes to look out for. That ensures everything I highlight is relevant. If I’m not that lucky, I think about what kind of essay questions I’d like to write on for that module and brainstorm ideas for that. Again, I’ll then highlight the relevant quotes.

Always go in with possible themes or arguments that you’d like to explore further and highlight away!

…so, onto the tricky bit. Analysing those quotations. I’d always recommend looking out for the big ones: long quotes, detailed quotes, quotes with flowery language, quotes with free indirect discourse, and so on. This allows you more room to analyse. You can pick apart the language, look at the tone of the writing, ask why the author is writing like this, and all those other thoughtful questions. Small quotations are good for providing quick evidence, but it’s the meatier ones that will help to build on your argument.

My go to questions when analysing quotes are: A) why has the author chose those exact words? Do they allude to something bigger? Do they have interesting synonyms that build up a character’s profile? So, it’s pretty obvious that I focus on language techniques more than anything else. It’s where all the good stuff can be found.

However, you may want to pay attention to the wider image. Does that quote, found early on in the text, reflect a later plot twist? Does it foreshadow the growth of a character? Why is the novel written in this particular narration? What does an omniscient narrator do? What does first person narration do? Does the quote allude to any social, historical or political context?

Always ask yourself questions. Even if the quote is minute. You’ll find something.

Reading at university level is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it allows you to engage with each and every text on a deeper level, but it’s also a curse because you always end up reading too much into the text. It can sometimes cross the line between pleasure and work. It’s natural to me to whip out my sticky notes and start jotting away, even when I’m wanting to relax with a book.

Anyway, I think I’ll end this here. Enough rambling for one day. This has been my everyday reading experience for the past seven years or so, and I doubt it’ll change any time soon. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed the post!

Do you study literature or any other reading based degree? Do you annotate your books? I’d love to know your opinions on it!

Thanks for reading, Lauren X