Annotated Bibliography Assignment

English 1121: College Writing and Critical Reading

Fall 2009 / Section 18

Annotated Bibliography

Description:

This assignment brings together a number of the researching, reading, and writing skills we have been studying and practicing. Your annotated bibliography will help you prepare for writing your argumentative essay by giving you a chance to preview, read, summarize, and evaluate your research sources before writing the essay, and it will give me a more in-depth look at your topic and the research sources you are consulting.

As you know from your working bibliography assignment, a "bibliography" is a list of sources of information on a given subject. Often, the entries on a bibliography follow a certain format and are alphabetized--but there are some exceptions (see the MLA Handbook, 7th ed., pp. 126-133). An "annotated" bibliography differs from a "regular" bibliography in that a paragraph (or more) of commentary follows the bibliographic citation of each source.

Please word-process your document and follow the appearance of the samples discussed in class. Your annotated bibliography will be evaluated holistically based on (1) the accuracy of your bibliographic citations, (2) the quality and clarity of your annotations, and (3) clarity and "correctness" with respect to language--write, revise, edit, and proofread everything carefully.

The peer review for this assignment will be on Thursday, November 12, 2009, and you will need a complete draft at that time. The final draft is due on Monday, November 16, 2009, by 2:00 p.m.

Requirements:

1.) Your annotated bibliography should include eight (8) of your research sources--the argument essay assignment asks you to look for at least ten (10). Of the eight sources, there should be a variety of both “traditional” (but perhaps accessed electronically) and “digital-only” sources--e.g., books, magazine articles, journal articles, newspaper articles, internet-only articles, websites/webpages, interviews, videos, podcasts, etc.

2.) The bibliographic citation for each source will follow the MLA format for that type of source, and the citations should be alphabetized according to MLA guidelines--unless you discuss an alternative organization with me (by type of source, by date, by topic, etc.); if you use an alternative organization, you will need to include "headings" in your bibliography.

3.) The annotation following each source citation will have two parts:

A brief (2-3 sentence) summary of the source: you will want to provide the main ideas / sections / viewpoints of the source, and you may also want to include information about the writer's purpose, audience, or context for writing.
A brief (2-3 sentence) evaluation of the source: you will want to address issues of usefulness, relevance, currency, range of viewpoints, authority, credibility, and reliability. (See the MLA Handbook, 7th ed., pp. 31-38, for information on evaluating both print and electronic sources.)

"Publication":

On second thought, instead of requiring all of you to use Microsoft Office PowerPoint for this assignment, I'm only going to suggest it. At this point in the semester, for some of you, taking on a new software program might just be too much; I understand that, and I don't want to push you "over the edge." Yet, as Kathleen Blake Yancey mentions in her NCTE white paper, composition in the 21st century is moving in new directions, including the visual as well as the textual. In addition, most, if not all, Speech classes at ARCC are now requiring PowerPoint for speeches and presentations.

So, if you are thus inclined, you may compose your annotated bibliography using PowerPoint, and you may include visuals as well as text--but keep in mind that "writing" using PowerPoint is different than writing using Word. I will allow for a bit more creativity here, and I will understand that "language" may be used differently (bulleted lists, fragments, etc.). The key criteria, then, will include visual consistency and clarity, in addition to those listed above (clarity, accuracy, quality, and correctness).

Tutorials:

If you choose to go the PowerPoint route, I recommend the following online resources:

1.) http://digitalwriting.pbworks.com/PresentationTools

2.) Perhaps Google PowerPoint Tutorials, such as http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpoint101/a/begin_guide.htm