As I read through pieces of writing I make sure to read critically and the major technique I use is annotation. Annotation allows me to build connections within the text which helps keep me engaged in the piece. For example, in Galen Strawson’s article, I Am Not a Story, he stated that a man can, “…conduct himself in such a manner as to make a good story of it rather than a good life…” and I made a connection in my annotations in Blog 13 to Gus from the movie the Fault in Our Stars. This way I get to “…have an ongoing conversation with [myself] as [I] move through the text…” and this can help me connect better to the text and think of new ideas I could use in an essay. By making this connection I have a deeper understanding of how someone could do what Strawson says.

I also find quotes/statements that I feel are important in the text and could be helpful in a potential essay. In Strawson’s article, I highlighted a quote “I know that my present overall outlook and behaviour is deeply conditioned by my genetic inheritance and sociocultural place and time, including, my early upbringing” and used it in an activity done in class (picture listed below #4) and in my Multimodal essay. When I was reading the article this quote stuck out to me so I made sure to highlight so it could be easily found when I went back and read the article again.

I also look up words/phrases that I am not familiar with so I can understand the text that I am reading and not be concerned with words I do not know. For example, Strawson stated, “Here a prophetic ancestor…” and I did not know what prophetic meant and I found the definition so I understood how the person Strawson quoted was describing an individual.