1. annotation
[an-uh-tey-shuh n]
noun
A critical or explanatory note or body of notes added to a text.

2. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Read this first; it will tell you what the heck to do with
Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
Read this second, and annotate as you read. In addition to annotations, you will need to select a Most Valuable Passage (1 paragraph, max) for each chapter. Somehow indicate it as separate from your other annotations (highlight in a different color, bracket it, etc. – this differentiation should be obvious to your teacher, should they choose to take up your annotations for a grade), and write a brief note at the end of the chapter explaining your choice.

3. Sure you can highlight. But also…
Add notes to any highlighting or underlining to specify importance.
Bracket important passages
Connect related ideas
Outline main ideas in the margins
Write brief comments and questions in the margins
Place an asterisk or exclamation point beside something unusual, special, important, or poignant
Write “yes” or “no” near statements with which you either agree or disagree
Paraphrase important ideas
Note relationships between concepts (cause & effect, comparison, contrast)
Add your own examples
Circle unknown words and define them
Note passages that you don’t understand with a “?”
Write questions you have for your instructor or to investigate later
Note passages that seem inconsistent
Note passages that generate a strong positive or negative response
Identify cultural, social, historical, or literary allusions
Add brief note about developing thematic ideas at end of each chapter.

4. Visualizing an important
description
Symbolism
Themes
Question to myself
Connecting details
Tracking Motifs

5. Inferred importance of details
Imagery
Conclusion about narrator
Question for further research
Character development
Personal response

6. Prediction
Personification AND effect it creates
Brief analysis of conflict
Suspense AND question of interest to answer later.
Mood
Connection to outside text
Setting AND its possible effect on character
Significant observations about narrator
Central concepts that may develop theme