How to Highlight a Book

These are a busy dissertation writer’s tips for highlighting a book:

1. Use yellow for any statements that grab you.
2. Use orange for a statement that grabs you but is right next to another statement that already grabbed you, so you can keep them separate.
   
3. Highlight complete sentences for easy scanning.
4. Or highlight in such a way that what you highlight forms a complete sentence. It’s not as difficult as it sounds, and it will help you as you scan the book in the future or take notes.
5. Use pink for organizing statements. This will orient you on the page quickly. I do this before I read a section.
   
6. In an important book I go through my highlights after reading and pretty well copy them all down. I try to make my notes form a narrative that describes the book’s contents.
7. I write in the margins. I didn’t always. I use Pigma Micron pens for that.
8. I like clickable highlighters so I don’t have to fiddle with a cap. (Unfortunately, their noise also alerts our bird to my presence if he is quietly sleeping. So I cannot read in the living room early in the morning. Matt is fond of highlighter caps, so he doesn’t like this kind.)