Guided Annotations [Resource]
Frances Santos
What You Will Learn in This Section
The following resource provides a blank worksheet instructors can customize to guide students through specific annotations, such as analyzing the rhetorical situation or analyzing the author’s intention with specific word choices. This resource illustrates how the worksheet might be used with two suggested readings. The first example features a nonfiction essay discussing the complex opinions around choosing disability through preimplantation genetic diagnosis. With this text, students will encounter questions about vocabulary, tone, argumentative reasoning, types of evidence, and more. The second example features an excerpt from the book The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, which vividly recounts a desolate desert. In this example, students will analyze the purpose of devices such as allusions, diction, and imagery. An instructor has the option of using either example or customizing the blank worksheet to their own purposes.
Blank Guided Annotations Template
Steps for use:
- Download the Word document titled “Guided Annotations Template” from the Downloadable Resources section below.
- In the left column, copy and paste the text you plan to use in your classroom.
- In the right column, create questions for students to answer as they read or tasks to complete, such as identifying elements of the rhetorical situation or defining vocabulary. Space these questions and tasks out according to the relevant area of text. For example, the question “Tone: How would you characterize the tone of the piece in paragraphs 1-5?” should be positioned near the beginning of the text.
NOTE: The above instructions are included in the downloadable template itself. Simply replace any instructions with the text and questions of your choice.
Example: “Wanting Babies Like Themselves, Some Parents Choose Genetic Defects”
If an instructor wanted to have their students analyze the New York Times essay “Wanting Babies Like Themselves, Some Parents Choose Genetic Defects,”[1] they could copy the text into the left column of the blank template. Then, the instructor could fill in the right column with any of the below questions or tasks for the article.
- Vocabulary: As you read, provide a definition for each of the following words using context clues and/or a dictionary:
- malfunctioning
- cystic fibrosis
- Huntington’s disease
- defective
- soliciting
- tactic
- dictates
- willy-nilly
- Tone: How would you characterize the tone of the piece in paragraphs 1-5.?
- Tone: Discuss the rhetorical shift that occurs in paragraph 6. What is the author trying to do here?
- Line of Reasoning: What comparison is the author making here in paragraph 10? What claim are they making with this comparison?
- Line of Reasoning: The author makes another comparison in paragraph 14. What is being compared and how valid is this argument?
- Line of Reasoning: The author has shifted largely to anecdotal evidence. Why shift to this type of evidence?
- Line of Reasoning: Describe the rhetorical shift between paragraphs 20 to 21.
- Line of Reasoning: What claim does the author conclude with? How does his evidence and reasoning build up to this claim?
- Rhetorical Elements: Identify and explain the following elements of the text:
- Purpose
- Audience
- Subject
- Tone(s)
- Author Bias
NOTE: A Word document version of this example is provided in the Downloadable Resources section below. However, the article itself has not been reproduced in the example due to copyright restrictions. That said, a teacher may still use the article in their classroom with this template under the fair use exemption for uses related to educational purposes.
Graphic Organizer for Additional Analysis
Want to extend your students’ analysis of a text like this article? Consider having them complete the following graphic organizer. With this graphic organizer, students not only practice defining various types of evidence and appeals but they also practice specifically identifying when these devices are used within a text and how they help achieve the text’s purpose.
NOTE: A Word document version of this Textual Analysis graphic organizer is provided in the Downloadable Resources section below.
Textual Analysis Graphic Organizer
DIRECTIONS
First, identify the author’s claim:
Then, complete the table below.
| Identify or define these types of evidence. | Find examples of this type of evidence. | How does this evidence support the author’s claim? |
| Factual Evidence:
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
| Statistical Evidence or Data:
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
| Anecdotal Evidence:
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
| Expert Testimony:
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
| Logical Reasoning:
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
| Emotional Appeals:
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
Example: Excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Perhaps you are more interested in having your students analyze something more literary! Here is one such example where instructors can fill in the left column of the blank template using the opening section from Chapter 1 of The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea (available through the Google Books preview or library).[2]
NOTE: The “opening section” of Chapter 1 is ten paragraphs or roughly the first page or two, depending on what format you’re using. It begins with the “Five men stumbled out…” and ends with “Their full-sun 110-degree nightmare.”
In the right column, instructors could insert the following questions and tasks regarding this excerpt:
- Rhetorical Choices: Explain the allusion made to Desolation. What is the rhetorical purpose of this allusion?
- Rhetorical Choices: Define “writhed” and “eldritch bones.” What do those diction choices reveal about the desert?
- Rhetorical Choices: In context, the repeated use of “damned” can have a dual meaning. Discuss the dual meaning used here and how that helps support the author’s claim about the desert.
- Rhetorical Choices: Discuss how the dove imagery supports the author’s claim.
NOTE: A Word document version of this example is provided in the Downloadable Resources section below. However, the excerpt itself has not been reproduced in the example due to copyright restrictions. That said, a teacher may still use the excerpt in their classroom with this template under the fair use exemption for uses related to educational purposes.
Graphic Organizer for Additional Analysis
The suggested questions for annotating The Devil’s Highway sets students up for completing the following graphic organizer. With this graphic organizer, students gain practice identifying devices more relevant to literary texts and reasoning through how these devices support the author’s purpose.
NOTE: A Word document version of this Author’s Claim graphic organizer is provided in the Downloadable Resources section below.
Author’s Claim Graphic Organizer
DIRECTIONS
First, identify the author’s claim:
Then, complete the table below.
| Identify or define these devices. | Find examples of this type of device. | How does this device support the author’s claim? |
| Allusion
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
| Imagery
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
| Diction:
|
List examples here | Write your thoughts here |
Downloadable Resources (Worksheet, Graphic Organizers)
Click here to download a Word Doc version of the blank Guided Annotations Template:
Click here to download a Word Doc version of the example Guided Annotations worksheet for the New York Times essay “Wanting Babies Like Themselves, Some Parents Choose Genetic Defects” by Darshak M Sanghavi:
“Wanting Babies Like Themselves” Example
Click here to download a Word Doc version of the Textual Analysis graphic organizer:
Textual Analysis graphic organizer
Click here to download a Word Doc version of the example Guided Annotations worksheet for an excerpt from The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea:
Click here to download a Word Doc version of the Author’s Claim graphic organizer:
Author’s Claim graphic organizer
Attribution:
Santos, Frances. “Guided Annotations [Resource].” Strategies, Skills and Models for Student Success in Writing and Reading Comprehension. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. This work is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
- Sanghavi, Darshak M. “Wanting Babies Like Themselves, Some Parents Choose Genetic Defects.” The New York Times, 5 Dec. 2006. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/health/05essa.html. ↵
- Urrea, Luis Alberto. The Devil’s Highway: A True Story. Little, Brown, 2008. ↵