Written Annotation: Why It's Scored, Not Optional

The words are marked too

Art and Design has no written exam. Everything is assessed from what you submit, and written annotation is part of that submission, not a decoration on it. The specification asks you to record ideas, observations and insights visually AND through written annotation, using the specialist vocabulary of your discipline. A portfolio of beautiful work with silent pages leaves marks on the table, whichever title you are taking.

Describing or deciding?

Almost every weak annotation fails the same way: it tells the examiner something they can already see. Strong annotation tells them something they cannot: what you were thinking.

Which annotation scores?

Two students annotate the same photographic test print. Which annotation earns the marks?

• I shot at a wider aperture to throw the fence out of focus, so the eye stays on the hands
• This is a black and white photograph of a person standing near a fence
• I really like this photo and I think it is my best one so far
• I took this photo on Tuesday afternoon and printed it in the darkroom

What an annotation has to do

A line of annotation that scores usually does four things, and they fit in two sentences:

Match each title to vocabulary an examiner would expect

Where does it go?

Select the TWO statements that describe how annotation should appear in a portfolio.

• Beside the work it refers to, so the reader can see both at once
• Throughout the project, written as the decisions are made
• Collected into one written evaluation at the end of the project
• Only on the final pieces, since those are what is assessed

The most common way to under-score

Examiners on both boards report the same thing: candidates treat annotation as padding, and lose marks they had already earned in the studio. The fix is one habit. Before writing a line, ask: could someone work this out just by looking? If yes, it is description, and it is worth nothing. Write the part they could not see instead: the choice you made, the reason, and what you will do about the result.

Build the annotation

Put the parts of a strong annotation into an order that reads well and covers everything.

• What you tried: the specific thing you changed or tested
• What happened: the result, in specialist vocabulary
• Why that matters for the intention you are working towards
• Your judgement: whether it took you closer or further away
• What you will do next as a result

Find the thinking

Here is an annotation from a student's development page. Tap the part that records a DECISION rather than a description.

• This is my third print of the same negative.
• I burned in the top corner for eight seconds to stop the sky pulling the eye away from the figure
• . The paper is the same warm-tone stock as before.

Which line is dead weight?

In that annotation, which sentence adds least, and why?

• "This is my third print of the same negative", because it only counts attempts
• "I burned in the top corner for eight seconds...", because it is too technical
• "The paper is the same warm-tone stock as before", because paper does not matter
• None of them, since every sentence in an annotation is credited

A frame you can reuse

I tried _____, and the result was that the surface became _____. That matters because my intention is _____. On balance it took me _____ what I want, so next I will _____.

Annotate it

You have made three test pieces exploring one idea, in whatever discipline you are studying. The second one worked best, but not in the way you expected. Write the annotation that would go beside it.

• Say exactly what you changed for that test, not that it was the second one
• Describe the result using two pieces of specialist vocabulary from your own discipline
• Explain why the result matters for the intention you are working towards
• Give a judgement: did it take you closer to the intention, or somewhere more interesting?
• Finish with the specific next step it leads to, and write nothing that could be worked out just by looking