Annotations are simply notes about what the student is thinking while reading. In the English department, we ask students to write notes to show an understanding of the elements of literature, such as elements of plot, characterization, setting, vocabulary, and notes about how the author writes, which is called author’s craft. Annotations may also include questions, comments, or personal reactions to the story, but as students of English become more skilled, we expect the annotations to show growth in the technical aspects of literature and writing.

Students are encouraged to purchase their own books and write notes in them; however, we have books available at the school for those who would prefer to use our book and annotate with sticky notes that reflect their thoughts on the pages of the book. Please see the videos that can be found in Student Resources on our web page.
Students should follow the attached annotation rubric and consider the following while reading and annotating:
ï‚· Main thesis (What is Remarque’s number one message?)
ï‚· Themes (the messages a writer sends through the novel): the causes and attributes of the lost generation; man’s inhumanity toward man; the horrors of war; and super-nationalism is dangerous
ï‚· Motifs (abstract ideas or literary devices that support a theme): betrayal, comradeship, nature, pressure of patriotic ideals, carnage/gore; and animal instincts

ï‚· Symbols (objects, people, animals, or colors that support a theme): Kimmerich’s boots, butterflies, horses, women, and potato cakes
ï‚· The Impact of Style and Rhetorical Devices (the author’s craft): the impact of point of view, elements of plot, humor, personification, imagery, euphemism, repetition, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, parallelism, rhetorical questions, foreshadowing, onomatopoeia, appositive, alliteration, and slang
Students may use online resources such as cliff notes or spark notes, but students must paraphrase and cite such sources. Any project that has copied information from an outside source that is not paraphrased (in the students own words) and cited (write down where you found the information), will receive a grade of zero. These sources can be extremely useful for the front cover and back cover annotation criteria, but the inside analysis, which must correlate with the page numbers provided for the front and back cover characters, key events, setting, themes, motifs, symbol, and style, must be original.
Please do the best you can. For those annotating for the first time, having annotations that reflect a basic comprehension of the plot and the characters as well as specific questions about confusing lines shows initiative. We appreciate your effort.
The annotation example to the left shows how students may make notes as they read about not only what is happening, but what they notice about the author’s