Each example models the same move: Notice → Name → Interpret → Connect. The goal is to show you what “useful” annotation looks like—notes you can actually use later when you write.
Example 1: Fiction (structure + perception)
Context: In Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, the narration opens at the edge of an execution. The writing is hyper-specific, and that precision shapes what readers trust about the scene.
Text (opening sentence): “A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below.”
Model the move
- Notice: The opening is intensely concrete (location, distance, “swift water,” “twenty feet”).
- Name: Setting + sensory detail (precision).
- Interpret: This precision can do more than set the scene—it can create a strong realism effect, so later shifts in perception hit harder.
- Connect: A claim could argue that the story uses narrative technique to control what feels real, shaping the reader’s trust and expectations.
What annotation can look like (weak vs. strong)
- Weak underline: the whole sentence (too broad to use later).
- Strong underline: “swift water,” “twenty feet” (precision that builds realism).
- Weak margin note: “Important opening.”
- Strong margin note: “Precision creates ‘this is real’ feeling.”
- Weak why-question: “What happens next?”
- Strong why-question: “Why start with measurement + water imagery?”
Micro-claim model (2 sentences): This opening uses precise physical detail to create trust in the scene. That trust matters because it sets readers up to take what follows as real and stable, even if the story later complicates that stability.
Example 2: Poetry (sound + mood)
Context: In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven”, sound patterns and repetition build obsession and dread—almost like thought looping on itself.
Text (opening lines): “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—”
Model the move
- Notice: The sound echo (dreary / weary) and the rolling rhythm create momentum.
- Name: Sound + repetition (rhyme/internal rhyme).
- Interpret: The sound isn’t decoration; it helps build a mental state—fatigue, obsession, inward spiraling.
- Connect: A claim could argue that the poem’s form contributes to meaning by mirroring the speaker’s psychological experience.
What annotation can look like (weak vs. strong)
- Weak underline: “Once upon a midnight dreary” (highlighting without a reason).
- Strong underline: “dreary… weak and weary” (sound echo + mood).
- Weak margin note: “Cool rhyme.”
- Strong margin note: “Sound creates looping/obsessive mood.”
- Weak why-question: “Why does he feel sad?”
- Strong why-question: “How does rhythm make the mood feel inevitable?”
Micro-claim model (2 sentences): The poem’s opening rhythm pulls the reader into the speaker’s tired, repetitive thought pattern. The sound makes the mood feel inevitable, as if the mind can’t stop circling the same grief.
Example 3: Drama (stage directions = meaning)
Context: In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, the opening stage directions build a respectable domestic world before characters even speak. In realist drama, stage directions are not decoration; they carry meaning.
Text (stage direction excerpt): “[SCENE.—A room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not extravagantly.]”
Model the move
- Notice: The setting is “comfortable” and “tasteful,” but there’s a boundary: “not extravagantly.”
- Name: Stage direction + tone cue (social class / respectability signal).
- Interpret: The home is a performance space—orderly, controlled, designed to look “right.” The qualifier suggests limits: status and appearances matter.
- Connect: A claim could argue that the play uses the domestic setting to show how social expectations shape (and constrain) personal choices.
What annotation can look like (weak vs. strong)
- Weak underline: “A room furnished comfortably and tastefully…” (too general).
- Strong underline: “but not extravagantly” (the meaning-bearing qualifier).
- Weak margin note: “Nice setting.”
- Strong margin note: “Respectability + limits; status pressure.”
- Weak why-question: “What does the room look like?”
- Strong why-question: “What pressure does ‘not extravagantly’ add?”
Micro-claim model (2 sentences): The opening stage direction frames the home as respectable but bounded, which quietly introduces social pressure before the dialogue begins. That framing matters because it turns the setting into evidence about status, control, and what counts as “acceptable.”