There are no assignments for this week other than submitting your Reflective Annotated Bibliography for Unit 2 on Saturday, October 31st by 11:59 p.m.  Take the time this week to make sure you have met all of the criteria for this assignment.  Your final paper for this Unit should be submitted under Discussions/Unit 2.  Keep in mind the whole paper should add up to at least 2,300 words.  We will have an optional Zoom meeting on Wednesday, October 28th at 2 p.m. for any questions or concerns you may have.  Meeting ID/Password will be posted separately.  If you cannot make the meeting, you can email me your questions or concerns.

I have reposted the assignment here for your benefit and clarification.

So, to clarify, your finished product will have:

 

  • Intro
  • Source Entry 1 (a non-fiction document)
  • Source Entry 2 (a non-print source)
  • Source Entry 3 (you choose genre)
  • Source Entry 4 (you choose genre)
  • Conclusion

 

Your reflective annotated bibliography will have:

An introduction in which you introduce your question, why this question intrigues you and what you expect to find in your research.  (At least 300 words)

  • FOUR sources (at least 400 words each), each with a corresponding bibliography entry which includes
    • a summary of the source’s content
    • a reflection on that source which includes your opinion of what you’ve read
    • a brief rhetorical analysis (an evaluation of the author’s credentials, writing style, and purpose, and why you think the author is credible or not)
    • a short analysis of why you believe the author chose that genre and why it was a good or bad choice for the intended audience
    • You will also probably want to include a couple of key quotes here that you might want to use later– these don’t count toward your word count!
  • Each of these four sources will need to be a different genre.  That is, you can’t have four magazine articles or four YouTube videos. At least one of these sources needs to be a written non-fiction document (like an article or report) and at least one of these needs to be a non-print source, like a video, song or interview.
  • A conclusion, in which you summarize what you found, and explain what surprised you and how your thinking on your question deepened or changed.  You will also explain why you think what you learned is important, and who you think should hear about it (At least 400 words)
  • Just FYI: this whole thing adds up to at least 2300 words. Usually people write more.

 

 

So, here’s the Annotated Bibliography Outline that you should follow:

Intro (at least 300 words)

  • Introduce your question
  • Explain how you got interested in your question/ Why you are interested
  • Explain what you expect to find in your research (a hypothesis)
  • Explain what you will do if you find something that doesn’t fit your hypothesis
  • Write this in paragraph format (1-3 paragraphs)

 

Source Entries (at least 400 words each). You need four! 

Notes:

  • You will have 4 sources
  • You will have an entry for each source
  • Each source will be a different genre
  • At least one of these sources needs to be a written non-fiction document, like an article or report
  • At least one of these needs to be a non-print source, like a video, song or interview
  • 400 words each
  • Each entry will have all four parts.

How do I write an entry?

Part 1:

The first part of your entry will be the “bibliographic entry.” This entry gives the publication information, author, date, title and so forth. There are many websites (like easybib.com) that can help you do this.  Here is one example:

Fitzgerald, Jill. “Research on Revision in Writing” Review of Educational Research. 57.4 (Winter

1987): 481-506.

Part 2: 

In the second part of your entry, you will write a summary. This will be useful to you later, because it will give you the rundown of what you’ve read (just in case you forgot.)

It should convey what the author states in the article and not your opinions. Here is a good time to write what you think the main point is, but also what you think the most important points are (these aren’t always the same.) It’s also a good time to make note of what data, facts and evidence the author uses to support their claims, and how they use this evidence to arrive at their conclusions. This will probably be a paragraph long.

Part 3:

In the third part of your entry, you will write a reflection. This part is perhaps the most important part, so don’t skimp here!  This is where you respond to the text you’ve read.  Do you agree or disagree?  WHY? BE SPECIFIC! And quote the text! What questions do you have? What don’t you understand? What other information do you need to look up to better understand this article? If you could say something to this author, what would you say? What does this document tell you about your research question?

 

Also consider rhetorical factors here like the genre and the author’s credentials. How do you feel the author’s writing style, awareness of audience and purpose (reason for writing), and choice of genre affect the meaning and credibility of the document?

 

Part three will probably be 1-2 paragraphs.

Part 4:

Quotables. This last part doesn’t count toward your word count, but it will help you in Unit 3.  Here, you will make note of at least one direct quote from the author made that you feel really exemplifies the document’s claims or interpretations. Or, you might want to choose a sentence that you really agree with (or really DIS-agree with) that you want to refer back to later. You don’t need to repeat something you’ve quoted earlier– this is just a place to take note of quotations you feel you may want to use later.

 

Put it in quotes– and don’t forget the page number (if applicable).

 

Conclusion (at least 400 words):

  • You will summarize what you found in your research
  • You will tell readers what surprised you, or how your understanding of your question deepened or changed. (Spoiler: if the answer is “not at all”, you did not do enough research.)
  • You will explain why what you learned is important
  • You will explain who you think needs to know about it and why (Another spoiler: be specific!  The answer can not be “everyone.”  That is too big of an audience.  Narrow it down to who needs to hear about it first!)Â