Simple & Consistent

When you start to annotate your thesis, take ten minutes to think and make some decisions.

First, think carefully about what you need in your thesis. Every thesis is different and so is every person. There may be some very good suggestions for annotations that would be helpful to a lot of people, but they may not be right for meeting your needs or preferences. So make a list: what do you need in your thesis?

Second, consider how you are going to meet your needs simply and consistently. This is very important: anything you add takes time to add and anything you add will be seen again by you. It’s better if whatever approach you take is easy to do and easy to remember.

So what will you underline? With what colour? For what reason?

Where will you add margin notes? What governs your decisions for using highlighters? And when will you stick notes in to your thesis?

Decide before you begin. Think about your thesis. Think about your needs.

Be as simple as you can and work consistently to help the process of annotating your thesis – and to create a good space for when you’ll need to read it again.