Non-fiction (textbooks, articles etc.)

-Connections to class themes

-Important Dates/people (easier to find a date/name written in a margin than in a block of text)

-Key definitions

-Questions (Teachers LOVE those)

-Relating material to other situations (Little things that help you make connections.)

-Connections to other material

-Words I didn’t know and had to look up. Thats usually more of a person growth thing though.

Fiction:

-All the same things from Non-Fiction with a few more other things.

-Descriptions of Main Character(s)

-New Characters and how they relate to prtagonist/anagonist (E.g. From Jane Eyre: “Mr. Rochester; Jane’s employer, wealthy land owner. Unseen so far”)

-Major character/plot development (Sticking with my Jane Eyre example “Jane saves Mr. Rochester from Fire” “Mr. Rochester sees Jane as love intrest”.)

-Things like Metephors, Similities, Alliteration, Hyperbolies, Foreshadowing, etc. Anything that shows you are actively reading the text. Teachers like it when you focus on thinks discussed in class.)

-Key symbols and themes.

I find many people underline a lot, which is not very useful. They probably think they are marking important passages, and perhaps they are. But they are not critical. They end up underlining just about everything, or way too much at any rate.

Writing in the margins is better. You can indicate how a passage made you feel. Do you agree with what is being said? Do you disagree? Can you raise a question? Can you offer a rebuttal in point form (argue against what is said)?

Did a passage touch your heart? Did you find it particularly beautiful? Is there a message you can apply to your own life?

These are all things you can make a note of in the margins. And you will probably remember the book a lot better than if you simply underlined all over the place.

People put all kinds of stuff in the margins of books … notes on the book, notes on books they’d like to write, even ‘pictures’ … I used to put ‘daisies’ in the margins of the books I read that I owned … but I don’t reccomend you do that with this book you must turn in to the teacher … try making some ‘notes’ on the story/history … but you will have to ‘read fast’ and take good notes. This is an assignment you’ve had for the whole summer, and just NOW you are asking ‘what’ people put in the margins of books. BAD. Now, turn off your computer and start reading!

Any, imagery, similes, metaphors, and other literary devices if the book your reading is for english.

Also, write down any questions or comments that you have as you read.

Be sure to highlight important dates and information that you think you’ll need to know.