Skip to Main Content

JCU logoLibrary Guides

Digital Methods: Hypothes.is

This guide supports digital research with resources, projects, initiatives, tools, datasets and more.

Creating digital annotations using Hypothes.is logo.

Scholarly annotation has been practiced for more than a thousand years, taking the form of short explanatory notes or longer commentaries. More recently, digital tools have enabled collaborative annotation of online texts. As a free and open resource, the Hypothesis annotation tool helps students and researchers hold discussions, read socially, organize their research, and take personal notes. At JCU, your instructor might use this resource to facilitate collaborative analysis of specific texts, and to help you develop your skills in writing clearly and concisely.

Why write annotations? Annotating in an online collaborative environment fosters discussion about specific elements of a text (e.g. a Project acknowledgement.word, a sentence, or a passage), encouraging close reading that will help to enhance knowledge and understanding of the text and the contexts in which it was produced. Writing effective annotations takes skill. Developing these skills will enable you to add something interesting and meaningful to the highlighted word or passage. As a student in literary studies, you can use annotations to develop your ability to communicate complex ideas in interesting ways.

Privacy. Hypothesis annotations can be set to Private or Public, enabling you to keep personal notes or share an annotation or commentary with your own community of practice (e.g. students enrolled in the same subject, or independent study groups). Sharing your ideas and engaging with others is where conversation starts, and leads to a deeper knowledge and understanding of the world.

Simple annotations

A simple annotation might record information about the provenance of certain words in a text, e.g. John Milton’s 16th century adaptation of the title of Isocrates’ 4th century BC speech. 

Click image to enlarge

Hypothesis. simple annotations example.

Commentary

A longer annotation, or commentary, might offer an extended description or analysis of textual, biographical or historical information. In the 16th century, many books were published that compiled commentaries on important theological and classical texts. A commentary on a word or line of a particular text is often longer than a simple annotation, but rarely extends beyond a paragraph or page in length.

Click image to enlarge

Hypothesis commentary example.

Multimodal writing

In addition to text and hyperlinks, Hypothesis enables images and YouTube videos to be embedded in the body of an annotation. Well-chosen multi-media content could enrich your discussion or raise questions about the appropriate use of ideas, e.g. Milton’s 16th century ideas being used in present-day political speech.

Click image to enlarge

Hypothesis multimodal writing example.

We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and acknowledge Traditional Owners of the lands where our staff and students, live, learn and work.Acknowledgement of Country

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License, unless otherwise noted. Content from this Guide should be attributed to James Cook University Library. This does not apply to images, third party material (seek permission from the original owner) or any logos or insignia belonging to JCU or other bodies, which remain All Rights Reserved.

.