There are many ways to mark a book intelligently. Here are a few of the more common techniques:
- Underlining of major points and important or forceful statements.
- Vertical lines at the margin to emphasize a statement already underlined.
- Star or asterisk at the margin to be used sparingly to emphasize the ten or twenty most important statements in the book.
- A fold (dog-ear) on the bottom corner of a page which has especially useful information.
- Numbers at the margin to indicate the sequence of points an author makes in developing his argument.
- Numbers of other pages in the margins to indicate where else relevant points have been made to tie the ideas together.
- Circling of key words or phrases.
- Writing in the margin, or at the top or bottom of the page for the sake of recording questions and answers which a passage may have raised in your mind, reducing a complicated discussion to a single statement, recording a sequence of major points, etc. You may use the endpapers of a book for a similar purpose.