I read an essay called “Making Conversation and The Primacy of Practice” by Anthony Kwame Appiah, and while reading I made annotations to prepare myself for discussion. While reading this piece I went through and highlighted different terms that I did not understand, any relationships that I saw or connections I could make, challenges the author presented and questions I had. By going through and doing this process it helped me have a better understanding of the overall idea of this piece, and I can use this skill when reading other important articles and scholarly papers. Below is some examples of my annotations, questions are highlighted in yellow, understanding is blue, drawing relationships is in pink, and challenges is in green.

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. “Making Conversation and The Primacy of Practice.” Emerging: Contemporary Readings for Writers, 2nd ed., Bedford/St. Martins, 2010, pp. 66–82.

Q: Ask Questions (yellow): 

Can someone belong to more than one community, and what determines how you belong to that community? (69)

What are the responsibilities we have to people we do not know? (70)

Does this mean being connected to friends and others? (71)

Is it hard doing it? (72)

Is this saying you don’t always agree on everything in your family? (73)

U: Understand (blue):

Forebears: ancestors (67)

Malice: the intention or desire to do evil (68)

Inveighed: to speak or write about with great hostility (70)

Eponymous: powerful? (72)

Plausible: planned (72)

The view on it? (76)

R: Draw relationships (pink):

Each person you meet has an impact on your life, and you each have responsibilities towards each other, like my coach having an impact on my life and the rest of my teammates. (68)

Be nice to others (72)

Knowing when the right time and tone is for things (73)

C: Challenge (green):

Think about how people used to live and use the way they lived and their knowledge of human relationships now, and incorporate it into daily life now (68)

Understanding other points of views (71)

Learn about people in other places and their lives/achievements because it will help connect us on a deeper level (78)

Other Notes:

Begins with the definition of cosmopolitanism (68)

One of the most important lines of the whole essay (70)

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