Scholarship, literary and otherwise, aims at the development of new knowledge. Such development necessitates an understanding of the knowledge that is already in the world so as to avoid repeating what has already been said, to identify further avenues of inquiry not yet adequately addressed, and to find support for new and emergent ideas. It is in the interest of developing such understanding that students in LIT 203 are asked to compile a basic annotated bibliography; doing so develops in students knowledge of current research and offers them an easy study resource for future work.
An annotated bibliography will consist of a number of entries (for purposes of the class exercise, five, although "real" annotated bibliographies tend to include many more), each of which treats a single book, chapter, article, or other scholarly secondary source relevant to the approved paper proposal; many can be found in the holdings of the TCI library, and students are encouraged to look there. Primary sources should not be considered in and of themselves, although those that are scholarly editions may be included for their editorial commentaries. Also, sources should be recent where possible, typically published within the last five to seven years.
Each entry in an annotated bibliography should consist of three parts.* The first is an appropriate MLA-style Works Cited listing for the piece being annotated (and entries should be alphabetized based on the first member of the Works Cited listing). The second should be a one-paragraph summary of the piece being annotated (giving in the opening sentence the thesis of the piece and glossing in a few sentences thereafter the major points of support for the thesis). The third should be a one paragraph evaluation of the source (with the first sentence offering a statement about the quality and/or relevance of the piece and the next few offering evidence supporting the statement and explanations of how the evidence supports the statement). Entries should be double-spaced internally, with no additional space between parts, and indented as appropriate for each part. One extra space should come between entries to mark them off from one another.
Submissions will be evaluated in six categories:
Appropriateness of sources annotated
Adherence to MLA citation style
Clarity and appropriateness of summaries
Clarity and appropriateness of evaluations
Adherence to assigned formatting guidelines (other than MLA citation style)
Adherence to prescribed standards of mechanics (grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.)
Each category will be assigned a score, A+ through 0, and the average of the six category scores will be entered as the assignment grade.
The assignment must be submitted as an attachment via email to geoffrey.b.elliott@gmail.com prior to the beginning of class on the day the course calendar indicates the assignment is due. Acceptable file formats for the attachment are limited to Rich Text Format (.rtf) and Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx); no other file formats will be accepted. Typed hard copies may be submitted only with PRIOR approval of the instructor, offered on a case-by-case basis by direct consultation. Handwritten copies are not acceptable in any case. Failure to follow stated submission guidelines will result in the submitted assignment being discarded.
Students are advised that the texts of their annotations should be original compositions. Copying over or paraphrasing abstracts or other summaries and commentaries, even if they are cited, is not acceptable, and will result in a substantially lowered grade on the assignment.
The kind of work desired from students is exemplified here. Please note the differences in medium between the offered example and what will be submitted.
*For students who had ENG 099 with me, this will seem somewhat familiar, as it is an expanded version of the required article summaries for that course.