In order to quickly get the information you need about an article, book or author, many use a method such as annotation. This is a kind of process that allows you to get a preliminary idea of \u200b\u200ba unknown printed material.
What is this?
Annotation is an analytical information processing process designed to summarize documents, books or articles, revealing their logical structure. In other words, this procedure is used to obtain a summary of the contents of a publication.
Basically, an annotation of the text consists of two main parts: the bibliographic description and the text. This method is used to obtain information about a scientific source, but not to fully disclose the entire content of the article. That is, annotations allow you to make an objective, preliminary idea of a previously unknown scientific publication. With their help, you can quickly find, organize and remember the information you need in a fairly short time.
Summarizing and annotating the same thing?
Abstract is a brief (often free) presentation of a scientific publication on a given topic in writing (often in the form of a report), in which, in addition to disclosing the main content, there is a personal assessment, as well as the conclusions of the referent. In other words, such work makes the reader understand the most important aspects of the article or book, thereby saving him from the need to fully study the original source.
That's why annotating and summarizing are different. In the first case, only an answer is given to the question of what is written in the original source. And in the second you can find out what is being said. That is, annotation is only answers to questions about what and where it is written, and abstracting makes it clear what exactly is contained in an article or book.
What do annotations do?
They perform the following main functions:
- Search engine. That is, such an annotation is nothing more than an information retrieval tool for specific data in the text.
- Signal, which serves as such a notification about the original source. By looking at such an abstract, you can add up the first impression of an article or book and decide whether to read it in its entirety.
Analytical, general, reference and advisory annotations
If we classify annotations by collation method or functional purpose, they are:
- Analytical (special), which reveal only part of the content of the articleor books.
- General, characterizing scientific publications in full. That is, annotating documents in this way is somewhat similar to abstracting. On the basis of such work performed, one can also judge the content of an article or book.
- Reference. Such annotations only refer to general information about the author and the content of his scientific publication. But there is no bibliographic description in these works.
- Recommendatory. Such annotations are intended to attract the attention of the reader, arouse interest in the material and convince the reader to read the original source.
Abstract descriptive and explanatory annotations
According to the volume of annotations and the depth of disclosure of the original material, they are distinguished:
- Abstract (answer the questions: “What is written in the original source?” and “What exactly is written there?”). Roughly speaking, in such annotations all the main topics of an article or book are listed, as well as their content is disclosed in a brief form.
- Descriptive (answers one question: "What is written about?"). Such texts only in general terms reveal the content of the original source and the topics set out in it.
- Explanatory annotations, which can be a few words, a maximum of one or two sentences, and do not reveal the full content of the original article or book.
Other existing classifications
In addition to the above, there are the following types of annotations:
- Monographic, each of which is compiled purelyfor a specific document. That is, only one article or book on a given topic is annotated.
- Group. Such annotations are compiled on the basis of several sources that are similar in content.
And also there are "manual", automated, author's, editorial and bibliographic annotations. Each of these types of work is compiled by both people and special programs that automatically search for the necessary information in the text.
Requirements for annotations
To perform a quality annotation of an article, you need to adhere to some requirements. For example, you need:
- Take into account the purpose, i.e. choose the analytical or general, advisory or reference type of annotation. The next item will depend on this.
- Determine the scope of the annotation. For example, a reference annotation is 500-800 characters long. Other types of work may take from one to two pages of printed text.
- Observe the chronological structure (all events described in the abstract must be in the same order as in the original source).
- Stick to language specifics.
The last item on the list includes the following annotation rules:
- A simple, concise and clear presentation.
- Unwanted use of adverbs and colloquial expressions, unless required by the style of the source text.
- Compliance with the unity of terms and abbreviations.
- Avoiding repetition (this applies to both body text and titles).
- Use only standard abbreviations.
- Avoiding the use of constructions that provide a logical connection between sentences (for example, "as well", "therefore", "usually", etc.).
- Using impersonal verbs.
- Undesirable use of introductory words that do not affect the general understanding (for example, "probably", "maybe", "at least", etc.).
Exemplary Annotation Plans
General outline of the annotation:
- Introductory part, which provides a bibliographic description.
- Main, which lists the main events of the original material.
- The final part. Here you can give a brief description or assessment of the work done.
Plan for writing a recommendation annotation:
- Data about the author of the original source.
- Material content.
- Personal evaluation of an article or book.
- Edition information.
- Target audience of the original source.
Plan intended for reference annotation:
- Data about the author.
- Primary genre.
- The main topic of the material.
- Summary of the original source.
- Requisites of the edition.
- Audience for which the material of the original source is intended.
Recommendations for quickly finding basic information
In order to annotate literature quickly and easily, you need to be able to usekeywords, which are scattered throughout the text in one way or another. For example, you can use the ones in the table below.
| Author info | They can be: a scientist, doctor of philological sciences, professor, researcher, poet, writer, etc. |
| What genre is the original written in | Edition: article, brochure, manual, workshop, textbook, monograph, novel, collection (anthology), reference book, dictionary. |
| The main topic of the material or its summary |
For example, if it is a monograph, novel or other literature written by one person:
If it's an anthology or any other multi-authored book:
|
| New material available in original source |
For example, the following might appear in text:
|
| Audience for which the material is intended |
For example, the following is often found in the text:
|
| Availability of help desk |
This includes:
|
Scientific text annotation
If, when working with works of art, one should take care of the originality of the design (pay attention to readers' questions, compare material with other books, etc.), then annotating scientific texts does not take much time. Indeed, during the process, you can use the highlighting of standard wording, such as: “the author says”, “the publication is intended”, “the article is considered”, etc. The most important thing in such an annotation is to convey the main idea of scientific research to the reader.
In addition, when working with such material, it is necessary to adhere to the correspondence and uniformity of verbs. And also you need to use only standard abbreviations, abbreviations and terminology that will be understandable to the reader.
Annotation examples
To fully understand what an analytical method of information processing is, it is recommended to readsamples below.
Recommendatory annotation on the example of the book "Dictionary of Chinese Mythology":
Author M. Kukarina talks about charming Chinese myths, diverse, unusual creatures, images and deities. The book mentions the features of ancient China, real-life historical figures. The work is not an ideal reference book of mythology, but the author tried to tell about all the main creatures and deities of the Celestial Empire.
Examples of general annotation:
- Ed. A. G. Kosilova, R. K. Meshcheryakova. Handbook of technologist-machine builder. In two volumes - M.: Mashinostroenie, 1986. - 656 p., ill. The reference book is intended for engineers and workers in the field of mechanical engineering. Supplemented with new materials for the processing of parts on machine tools and GOSTs.
- Digital photography for dummies. Per. from English - M.: Publishing house "William", 2003. - 320 p., ill. A book for beginners. The manual tells in detail about the intricacies of shooting and processing photos on a computer. For ease of use, the book has a reference apparatus in the form of a table of contents, introduction, applications and subject index.
Example of reference annotation:
Haunted house. American Mystery Stories. The book was published in 2014, Eksmo. The book tells about haunted houses Ralph Adams Crum (novelette Kropfsburg Castle Tower, 1895), John Kendrick Bangs (The Phantom Cook of Bangletop, 1892), Leonard Kip (Spirits at Grantley, 1878 d.) etc.
