Red pen is where all the action is . It has the necessary contrast against the text . It does not fade with wear , like pencil . It cannot be dislodged or unstuck , like ANY brand of sticky note . Mine annotations are often preceded by a coded key , by theme or character and that appears near the front . If it ' s something I am teaching , I might collect an index of page numbers again by theme or character in one of the last few blank pages or inside rear cover . Additionally , red pen is a statement of intent . That this text is yours , and it is going absolutely nowhere . Sixth form students at my place believe they can copiously postit or pencil the text , and then sell it on . Think again . That would involve removing every postit or rubbing out every pencil mark . All to sell as ' Like New ' at 0 . 01 plus pp at Amazon ? My time is worth more than that . I never get rid of a text I have ' analysed '. Ever . It ' s part of me . I revisit them , and find they are time capsules of who I was when I annotated the text . Sometimes that causes me to cringe , it ' s true . A second annotation is done in blue biro . And bookmarks are usually train tickets , for I travel by train a lot . Last week I took a book of poems from my shelf for a school blog post tempted to plug , but I will refrain and found that the page I wanted was bookmarked by a train ticket from Perth to Edinburgh dated 1991 . That moment was worth it ' s weight in gold .