James K.A. Smith on Annotating Texts

I first realized the value of personal annotations in the Grade 12, while muddling through a section of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. My tiny, high school brain was reeling, on the verge of a cranial explosion. The only thing I could do to maintain the slightest clue about what Hobbes' was saying was to jot paragraph summaries in the margins.

Since that time, I've read a lot more dense material that required careful reading and annotation. I've tried a number of things: book darts, post-it notes, highlighters, and pencil notes. I'm still finding the annotation approach that's right for me. 

That being said, Calvin College's James K.A. Smith wrote a recent blog post on annotating texts that I've found helpful. He has some helpful tips and illustrations regarding annotation that you can read at his blog, Fors Clavigera.