Question

Do you read a lot of nonfiction, other than newspapers and magazines? What approach do you usually take to reading nonfiction? Have you ever annotated a piece of nonfiction, reading it closely and making notes about the text? If so, how has that helped you to understand the text better? If you’ve never annotated a text, do you feel there are parts to reading nonfiction that you find confusing?

Answer 1

Reading nonfiction can yes, be a bit boring. When you annotate the text you start understanding the text more, more so because it's about real life events. Giving examples and writing notes to understand does help you know what you're reading. By looking back on what you've written about the text it can help you understand what is going on.

Hope this somewhat helps!

Answer 2

Yes, I have annotated and closely read a nonfiction text, and it helped me in the following ways:

I was able to locate important information in the text quickly.

I could identify the central idea of the text.

I understood the development of the ideas and arguments in the text.

I highlighted and looked up new vocabulary and concepts in the text.

or

No, I’ve never annotated a nonfiction text or tried to do a close reading of it. Whenever I've read nonfiction, I had the following problems:

I had a hard time understanding what the work was about.

I wasn’t able to locate the central idea of the text.

I had an incomplete understanding of how the ideas and arguments were developed.

I didn’t mark off any words and concepts I didn’t understand, so I never looked them up.