Below appears information regarding the Critical Paper Annotated Bibliography required of my Fall 2014 ENGL 2413 students. While a hard copy will be distributed during class time, the online version is to be considered authoritative.
Carrying out the project proposed in the abstract requires that the work being studied be treated in its contexts--among which is the critical context, those pieces of scholarship that treat the work being studied and its other contexts. It is to facilitate understanding of that critical context that students in my Fall 2014 section of ENGL 2413 are required to compile a short annotated bibliography. As with an earlier instantiation of such an assignment, the annotated bibliography will need to have at least five entries. Each entry will need to offer an annotation for a scholarly publication dating to within the last ten years (i.e., publication date 2004 or later, unless otherwise agreed upon in consultation with the instructor), and a diversity of source types (single scholarly book; book chapter from an edited scholarly collection; published, peer-reviewed article from a reputable scholarly journal; or posting from a reliable scholarly website such as those maintained by academic societies) is desirable. Each annotation will need to consist of three components:
A Works Cited entry for the source that conforms to the current standards promulgated by the Modern Language Association of America (MLA)
Note that entries should be ordered alphabetically by the first member of the Works Cited entries; they may or may not be numbered.
Note that URLs are neither required nor requested.
A short one-paragraph summary of the contents of the source
A one-paragraph analysis of the utility of the source to the project (sources annotated are presumed to be useful for the project; the analysis should discuss how the source is likely to be useful)
Entries should be separated from one another by extra vertical spaces. Internally, they should conform to MLA formatting and usage standards.
Please note that the annotated bibliography should have heading, title, and page numbers in accord with MLA formatting. The required title is "Annotated Bibliography for '[Insert proposed title of your paper],'" punctuated and capitalized as appropriate to MLA guidelines.
Scholarly Publications
The requirement stated above that annotations must be of sources from scholarly publications is important. It works to prevent students from accepting as valid information that is not likely to be so, ensuring that they are grounded in reputably scholarly contexts and can speak from an emergent understanding of the best available knowledge in the field rather than parroting the inane ravings of the less-reliable. As such, annotations should generally be of peer-reviewed sources (i.e., materials published in them are reviewed by other scholars in the field to ensure that their methods and supporting data are in line with prevailing standards of knowledge development) and/or those deriving from academic presses and/or organizations. General reference sources (e.g., Wikipedia, other encyclopedias, dictionaries) are not scholarly sources, regardless of their provenance; they may be useful for finding other sources, but they are not in themselves appropriate for use.
Typically, sources available through such databases as JSTOR and Academic Search Premier will be peer-reviewed, as will those coming from university presses. Dissertations are also peer-reviewed and would thus be acceptable for use. Scholarly society postings such as those of the Medieval Electronic Multimedia Organization may also qualify as acceptable. Students are advised to consult with the instructor regarding any questions about the acceptability of sources for the assignment.
Grading
The annotated bibliography is a 100-point major assignment. It must be submitted as a single file in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format via the appropriate D2L dropbox no later than the beginning of class time on 3 October 2014; it will be submitted for originality checking as part of the dropbox. The grade the submitting student will receive for the assignment will be determined by observed performance in the following areas:
Format (30 points)
Does the document conform to MLA formatting in its text (double-spaced 12-point Times New Roman, with one-inch margins on all sides and heading, title, and page numbers as appropriate)?
Does the document conform to MLA formatting in its Works Cited entries?
Does the document conform to the additional formatting guidelines noted above?
Is the document submitted in the required file formats and to the requested online location?
Content (50 points)
Are there at least five entries? Do they contain all three required components?
Does each entry treat a source from the last ten years (unless agreed upon in advance in consultation with the instructor)?
Does each entry offer an appropriate summary?
Does each entry offer an appropriate analysis?
Mechanics (20 points)
Does the annotated bibliography adhere to the standards of usage promulgated by the MLA? Does it reflect levels of diction, tone, and register that can be reasonably expected of students in a lower-division college English class?
A copy of the grading table that will be appended to the annotated bibliography when it is returned to the student can be found here.
A sample of the kind of content expected can be found here, although its formatting will be somewhat different than expected of student submissions because of the medium. Others may be forthcoming, as may yet other information; students are advised to check back for updates.
The assignment is an exercise in appropriate accounting for information found. Any reference to outside information must be accounted for appropriately; failure to do so will prompt investigations for plagiarism that may be detrimental to student grades.