How to Annotate an Extract (Edexcel GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

What does it mean to annotate an extract?

Annotating means picking out the most useful parts of a text and writing short notes beside them. In the exam, your annotations are the first stage of your plan: they show you which evidence you will use and what you will say about it.

Your English Literature exams are closed-book, so the printed extract or poem is the only text in front of you. Annotating it carefully gives you evidence that is ready to use.

How to annotate an extract in your exam

Here is how to annotate an extract. Edexcel GCSE part (a) questions print one for Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel, and these five steps work for both:

• Read the question first: underline its key words, so you know what you are looking for

• Read the extract once without writing on it: pay special attention to the short introduction above it, and work out what is happening at this point in the text

• Underline the details that link to the question: choose four to six short quotations, often a single word or phrase

• Note what each detail shows: write a few words in the margin about how it links to the question and why the writer chose it

• Link to the rest of the text: note where else in the text the same idea appears, in a separate plan for part (b). Part (b) asks about “elsewhere” in the text, and your part (a) answer is about the extract only

Keep your annotation symbols simple, and use the same ones every time. Underline a detail, number it, star your best idea and draw an arrow (→) to link two ideas.

Here’s how you might annotate part of a Macbeth extract. The key words in the question and the introduction to the extract are underlined, as well as the textual details selected. The details are numbered, and the table below the extract shows the margin note for each one.

Practice question: Explore how Shakespeare presents the character of Macbeth in this extract. Refer closely to the extract in your answer.

Notes 1 to 3 show what holds Macbeth back, and notes 4 and 5 show that ambition alone is not enough to make him act. Note 5 is starred because it answers the question about his character most directly.

How do you turn your annotations into a plan?

Your annotations are already most of your plan. When you have finished annotating:

• Star your best idea: the detail that answers the question most directly becomes the core of your thesis statement (your overall answer to the question)

• Group your notes into three or four main ideas

• Number the ideas in the order you will write about them

Here is the plan these Macbeth annotations give you:

How long should you spend annotating?

Annotate during your planning time, not as a separate task. A few minutes is usually enough for one extract or poem. Stop once you have enough evidence for your plan: annotation is only useful if it saves you time when you write. The table at the end of this page shows how this fits each question.

What should you look for when you annotate?

Look for details that help you answer the question, such as:

• Words and images linked to the focus: for example, anything about ambition, power or kindness, depending on the question

• Changes and turning points: words such as “But” or “Besides” often signal a change of thought or mood

• Contrasts: between characters, between ideas, or between how the extract begins and ends

• The ending: the last lines of an extract or poem often show the writer’s message most clearly

• Links to the rest of the text: what happens before or after this moment, noted separately for part (b)

What should you avoid?

• Technique labels on their own: writing “simile” next to a line won’t help you, because the marks are for explaining what the technique does. Note its effect instead, such as “simile: pity seems powerful”

• Highlighting everything: if you underline or highlight most of the extract, nothing stands out when you plan

• Writing full sentences in the margins: keep your notes to a few words. A note only needs to remind you of your idea, because you will explain it fully in your essay, and writing sentences uses up planning time

How to annotate a poem for a comparison question

Annotating a poem uses the same five steps as an extract. Poems pack a lot of meaning into a few words, so read slowly and look for who is speaking, repeated words, a shift in tone and the last line. In a comparison question, it’s a great idea to annotate with your second poem in mind. There are two kinds of comparison question, and you annotate them differently.

How do you annotate for the anthology comparison?

In the anthology question, only one poem is printed. You choose the second poem and write about it from memory. It must come from the same collection as the printed poem, and the paper lists the titles in that collection. Annotate the printed poem for the question, including a short note on its context, because context (AO3) is worth 5 of the 20 marks, then:

• Jot down your second poem: write two or three short quotations from it in the margin, from memory

• Link the two poems: use an arrow to show where the two poems are similar or different, and add a word or two to say how

The table below shows annotations of Armitage’s ‘The Manhunt’ for a comparison question, with ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ as the second poem. The third column shows the link each note makes to ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’.

Question (June 2024): Re-read The Manhunt. Choose one other poem from the Relationships anthology. Compare how a relationship between two people is presented in the two poems. In your answer, you should consider the:

• poets’ use of language, form and structure

• influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.

Jotted in the margin from ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’: “Alone and palely loitering”, “Thee hath in thrall!”, “And no birds sing.”

The starred note gives a thesis about a relationship between two people, and the links give you the comparison: both poems show a man left damaged, but in ‘The Manhunt’ the relationship slowly heals him, while in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ it destroys him.

For your context note, you could jot down that Armitage wrote the poem for a 2007 documentary about soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and that Laura, a soldier’s wife, read it on screen.

How do you annotate for the unseen comparison?

In the unseen comparison, both poems are printed and you won’t have studied either of them. Annotate them in this order:

• Read the question first: it names the focus you’re annotating for

• Read each poem without writing on it: work out who is speaking and what the situation is

• Read them again and underline: pick out the details that answer the question

• Annotate both poems for all three bullets: underline details about the ideas, the language, and the form and structure, and note which part of the other poem each one links to

• Give both poems the same care: answers that are “considerably unbalanced” can’t reach Level 3, and examiners say form and structure were “the most likely missing element”

Annotating in your Edexcel GCSE English Literature exam

In your Edexcel GCSE English Literature exams, you cannot take your set texts in with you. You can only annotate what is printed in the separate Questions and Extracts Booklet, and that is different for each question.

Annotating text under timed conditions takes practice. Use the same steps every time you’re annotating a text. English Literature questions vary in what they print and how long they give you.

This table shows how to annotate a text in each part of your two exam papers: