Annotation

Book excerpt: An introduction to annotation as a genre--a synthesis of reading, thinking, writing, and communication--and its significance in scholarship and everyday life. Annotation--the addition of a note to a text--is an everyday and social activity that provides information, shares commentary, sparks conversation, expresses power, and aids learning. It helps mediate the relationship between reading and writing. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers an introduction to annotation and its literary, scholarly, civic, and everyday significance across historical and contemporary contexts. It approaches annotation as a genre--a synthesis of reading, thinking, writing, and communication--and offer examples of annotation that range from medieval rubrication and early book culture to data labeling and online reviews.