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 🧱

An interactive activity.

Find the thinking 🎯

An interactive activity.

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 ✍️

An interactive activity.