Text only Version of the Online Writing Lab
St. Louis Community College - Meramec
Annotate to Understand Vocabulary
This process is called predicting meaning through context clues. Context clues are other words and ideas in the paragraph that will give you a hint about the meaning of the word you don't know.
For example, using the steps above, predict what the word in bold text means in the following paragraph.
When the early settlers first landed in the New World, they assumed they would discover gold and then sell it to meet all their wants and needs, but their plans were premature. They soon realized that the land had no gold to offer, but they did notice that the topography of the region was filled with trees. Just when they were almost ready to give up, they thought of ways to better utilize the pine trees. Using their imagination and resourcefulness, they invented new products from the pines that not only helped them survive, but helped them pay back their debts to England.
Does Topography mean...