Annotation is a big word for taking notes on a material. It is almost as old as writing itself.1 You can also annotate video, audio or any information object. For the annotator, the immediate benefit of annotation is better comprehension because it require active (as compared to passive) consumption of information. The annotator, for example, cannot simply read, but must also think. And it takes more thinking to transform one’s rough thoughts into succinct, useful notes. There are also longer-term benefits to annotation. The annotator has the notes for future reference, of course. The notes are a resource for remembering what was already thought, preventing, or at least limiting, the need to fully re-think an issue. Furthermore, if the annotator shares the notes, other people can benefit. Rather than start from scratch, the path before them is clearer (assuming the notes are good), making their journey to comprehension faster.

For more information on annotation techniques, look at this New York Times article and the chapter, How to Be a Demanding Reader, in How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, by Adler and Doren.

I highly recommend you start reading and working on your Annotation at the beginning of the section.

Your Annotation

You will annotate entries from Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving [Available via CSU library; click here.] See Course Schedule for which entries are due when.

You should do the following for “Your Annotation”:

• Title a Word document with the name of the given section

• Summarize every entry (not less, not more)…

• In your own words (no quotation or plagiarism)…

• In three to five sentences (not less, not more).

When you are done annotating a section, submit your annotation as a single Word document in D2L.

Also, your annotation notes must conform with the instructions in the following section, “Organization of Annotation”

Organization of Annotation

The following is an example of how your annotation for the section of the course, Foundations of Community Policing (see Course Schedule). For this section, you are to annotate 10 entries. Thus, you will have 10 separate annotations. Recall, each annotation must be at least three sentences. Before writing your annotation for a particular entry, write the title of the entry in bold. So, for the first annotation, the first few entries should appear as follows:

Community Policing, Evolution of

Sentence 1. Sentence 2. Sentence 3. Sentence 4. Sentence 5.

Community Policing: What It Is Not

Sentence 1. Sentence 2. Sentence 3. Sentence 4. Sentence 5.

Community Policing: Resources, Time, and Finances in Support of

Sentence 1. Sentence 2. Sentence 3. Sentence 4. Sentence 5.

What to Annotate

Grading & Submission

Submission: After completing your annotation, upload the Word document to the associated assignment folder in D2L. Your first annotation will be “Annotation 1,” and so on and so forth. Because TurnItIn Technology is being used to check for plagiarism, make sure you do not put your name or any other identifying information in the document.

Grading: Each annotation will be graded as Pass/Fail. To achieve a pass (100 percent), you must follow all the instructions above and submit a complete annotation. If you are missing any entries and/or do not follow the instructions above, your submission will be viewed as incomplete and given a fail (zero).