| Abstract
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While a study of user-made markings can inform the design of reading and annotating systems, there have been relatively few empirical investigations of user markings in an online environment. Most examinations of markings were carried out on paper documents, and electronic annotating systems were designed accordingly. This thesis reports the results of a baseline study carried out to gather and analyse user-placed markings and associated navigational activities on electronic documents (e-documents). Four methods were used for data collection: questionnaires, marked e-documents, navigational activity logging, and interviews. Eighteen graduate students participated in this study; half of them read documents privately, while the other half shared their readings. This yielded 17 questionnaires, 60 e-documents (with 1,923 markings), and 56 computer logs. Personal interviews were then conducted with sixteen participants. Analyses of data revealed the types of marking users employ, and the ways in which those marking were placed. Also documented were the navigational patterns of readers, and the user perceived functions of these marking structures. The observed marking forms were placed into three categories consisting of base markings, annotation types, and symbols, where highlighting and underlining were the most popular marking types. Derivation of user perceived functions showed that underlining was considered useful for indicating supporting ideas, while highlighting was indicative of the key themes. Among marking placement approaches, marking first sentences, marking visible text, and placing short markings were the frequently observed approaches. Nonetheless, individual readers preferred to place more markings within illustrations and made self-reminding thicker markings, while the sharing readers focused more on marking perceived keywords. An investigation into navigational activities revealed that reading a clean and unmarked document in a one-column textual layout was preferred for first readings. A recurring observation was that the readers were not interested in using more than 2--3 marking tools in a typical reading session, but switched tools quite often to split themes and ideas, even more so in a shared setting. Finally, an overall comparison of private readers with document sharing readers revealed noticeable, but not statistically significant, differences in the way these readers formed and placed their markings on e-documents.
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