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How to annotate a reading in Google Docs

Annotation is highlighting plus a reason. Docs gives you both tools, highlight color and comments, but no system. This is the system: what gets a color, what gets a comment, and how to get your notes back out at the end.

Get the reading into a Google Doc

• Web article: select the text in your browser, copy, and paste into a new doc with Cmd+Shift+V (Ctrl+Shift+V) to drop the site's formatting.
• PDF: upload it to Google Drive, right-click, Open with → Google Docs. Docs converts the text. Layout suffers, the words survive.
• Word file: upload and open it; Docs converts it, and existing highlights come through.
• Put the source and date at the top. Future you will need the citation.

The two-tool rule

Most annotation systems fail because they use one tool for everything. Split the job:

• Highlight = "this passage matters, and here is what kind of thing it is." The color is the category. Choose three at most: for example yellow for the main claim, green for evidence, pink for something you disagree with or need to check. The color-coding guide has systems for a semester, a manuscript, and a case file.
• Comment = "here is what I think about it." Select the text, press Cmd+Option+M (Ctrl+Alt+M), and write one sentence. A comment with no highlight under it is fine for a passing thought. A highlight with no comment is fine for a plain marker.

Rule of thumb: if you would want it in a summary, highlight it. If you would want to say it in a discussion, comment on it.

First pass: highlight only

Read the whole piece once and highlight as you go, without stopping to write. Stopping to write comments on the first pass breaks the thread of the argument and doubles the time. Aim for under one highlight per paragraph. If everything is yellow, nothing is.

Second pass: comments on the highlights that earned them

Skim your highlights and add a comment only where you have something to say: a question, a disagreement, a connection to another reading. Most highlights will not get one, and that is correct. To review later, open the comment thread panel (the speech-bubble icon, top right) to see every comment in order without scrolling the document.

Getting the notes back out

This is where Docs stops helping. There is no built-in way to list highlighted text (the extraction guide covers the manual options). Two practical routes:

• Comments: the comment panel is already a list. Copy each one into your notes, or leave them in the doc and search it later.
• Highlights: with Highlight Harvest, click Harvest highlights in the sidebar and every highlighted passage appears grouped by color in reading order. Insert at end of doc adds it as a "Highlights" section with a heading per color, so the reading and its summary live in one file. Name your colors first and the headings become "Main claim", "Evidence", "Check this".

Sharing annotated readings

• Sharing the doc shares your highlights and comments. Make a copy first if the marks are for you.
• For a class or reading group, one shared doc where each person uses one color works better than everyone using yellow. Name the colors after people.
• Resolve comments as they are discussed. Resolved comments stay in the history (comment panel → filter) without cluttering the margin.

Mistakes to avoid

• Highlighting whole paragraphs. Mark the sentence that carries the point. Your summary will read better.
• More than three colors. You will forget what the fourth meant by next week.
• Annotating a doc you do not own. Make a copy, or your marks are visible to everyone and may be removed by the owner.