Write a Thorough annotation on a minimum of five scholarly sources

ENGL 3332 Fall 2018 | Dr. Dominy 1

Annotated Bibliography with Review Essay

200 Points (20% of Final Grade)

Minimum Length: Thorough annotations on a minimum of five scholarly sources, plus a review

essay of at least three pages in length. Total length will be six to eight pages.

Due Sunday, 25 November 2018 at 11:59 pm in D2L/Brightspace Dropbox

Description of the Assignment

An additional core activity of literary scholars is being conversant in the extant criticism in the

field of one’s study, which means knowing how other literary scholars interpret the same texts

and authors that you have read. This assignment is designed to help you become more conversant

in the criticism of one of the short story authors whom we have read during this term. To

complete it, you will compile an annotated bibliography of at least five items of scholarly literary

criticism and then write a review essay to identify connections and more thoroughly describe the

conversation on the author.

As a refresher, an annotated bibliography is a list of sources on a subject in which each item is

accompanied with an annotation, which is a summary of the source’s thesis, central claims, and

most significant support or evidence. Many professional scholars keep these as part of their notes

(I try to keep a running, informal annotated bibliography of sources I encounter in my research).

While this annotated bibliography should be treated as a formal academic assignment, it can

serve as a model for what you should always do informally in your research.

A review essay looks at a group of recent publications in a specific field of literary scholarship in

an effort to show how recent criticism is in conversation and describe the direction that the field

is headed. They are typically published in the book review section of scholarly journals.

Having experience writing both an annotated bibliography and a review essay is important

because it will not only help you to practice some of the skills you will need to have and deploy

independently in other literature courses, like Senior Seminar, but in graduate school should you

choose to go that route. These skills transfer to other research applications, too.

Guidelines for the Annotated Bibliography portion:

 You must focus on one author who is on our syllabus this term.

 You must annotate at least five sources from the last five years. Consult me if you have an issue.

 Your research should focus on resources available through the library. The appropriate resources available through the library are

o The library catalog (for books and eBooks) o The MLA International Bibliography (for journal articles, books, eBooks, book

articles, and dissertations)

o Academic Search Complete (this is more general interest, but has more full-text) o JSTOR (journal articles) o The Literary Resource Center (for bibliographies and tertiary sources to help you

get started)

o GALILEO Discover Tool to help you find specific items you have bibliographic information for or as a last resort

ENGL 3332 Fall 2018 | Dr. Dominy 2

 Because I want you to immerse yourself in the criticism you find as much as possible, limit yourself to looking for and reading scholarly book chapters and scholarly (peer

reviewed) journal articles. This is because you likely will not find a book that addresses a

single short story author, nor would you have time to read it. If you do encounter a book

you want to include, discuss it with me.

 Book reviews or articles from Masterplots or similar reference and tertiary material are not appropriate sources for your annotated bibliography.

 Please thoroughly read your sources. Skimming them won’t cut it. Nor will relying on the abstract.

 The content of each annotation should be one or two well-developed, coherent paragraphs. Your annotations should

o Summarize the thesis (central argument) of the source o Summarize the significant evidence offered in the source o Explain how it relates to discussions we had in class related to your chosen

author, the story we read, or other topics

o Note any theoretical approach, as far as you think you can understand it o Demonstrate you understood what you read

 To format your annotated bibliography, arrange entries alphabetically by author’s last name. Provide the MLA works cited entry for the source, and then on the following line

start your annotation, first line indented as a paragraph. The document should be

uniformly double-spaced, not adding additional lines between annotations and the

subsequent entries.

 These essays will be graded with the rubric following hereafter in this assignment prompt.

Guidelines for the Review Essay portion:

 This essay should be driven by a thesis that describes any consensus, disagreement, or direction scholarship is headed that you identified in the criticism that you read.

 Rather than organizing your essay source-by-source, you should consider organizing the essay issue-by-issue, topic-by-topic, or theme-by-theme. This will help you to more

readily show dialogue between sources where it exists and to avoid repetitive summary.

 Spend more time discussing the sources that seem more important to you.

 Essays should have pointed, concise introduction, clear thesis statements, and focused, cogent body paragraphs.

 Quote and paraphrase from your sources as necessary in the essay. Be sure to attribute all such material.

 Because this is an annotated bibliography, this essay requires no works cited page. In all other aspects, it should conform to MLA styles and standards for formatting,

documentation, and citation.

As always, come by office hours if you have questions or if you need some help getting started.

ENGL 3332 Fall 2018 | Dr. Dominy 3

Rubric for Annotated Bibliography with Review Essay

Excellent Effective Adequate Limited Unsuccessful

Quality of

Annotations

Annotations

state the thesis

of each source

clearly and

explains its

significant

evidence and

support in

careful detail.

Demonstrates

understanding

of the source.

Makes it clear

the student read

the source

carefully.

Annotations

have substance.

Annotations

state the thesis

of each source

clearly and

explains its

evidence in

detail. Writing

has substance.

May not reflect

as well that

sources were

carefully and

thoroughly

read.

Annotations

state the thesis

and evidence

addressed in

the source

clearly.

Annotations

have logic.

Thesis of

sources not

clearly stated in

one or two

annotations; no

discussion or

explanation of

the evidence

used in one or

two of the

annotations.

Annotations are

bulleted, not

paragraphs, or

lack substance.

Quality of

Sources

All sources are

of strong, recent

scholarship and

are related to

the chosen

author.

All sources are

scholarly and

related to the

chosen author.

Sources may

be a little

dated.

The minimum

number of

sources are

annotated, all

on chosen

author, but one

may not be

scholarly or

recent.

There 4 sources

annotated or

fewer 4 are

scholarly, on the

chosen author,

or recent.

There are fewer

than 3 sources

annotated; Most

sources are

popular or are

off-topic or not

literary criticism.

Purpose:

Finding the

Conversation

Essay

sophisticatedly

reviews the

existing

conversation as

found in the

sources;

detailed, skillful

synthesis of

evidence from

sources; places

sources in

dialogue with

each other

beyond just

citation

Essay

effectively

reviews the

existing

conversation as

found in

sources;

synthesizes

evidence from

sources to

support claims;

places sources

in dialogue

with each other

beyond just

citation

Essay reviews

the existing

conversation in

sources;

synthesis of

evidence is

elementary or

can only place

sources in

dialogue

through their

direct citation

of each other.

Essay attempts

to review the

existing

conversation;

does not rely on

sources to show

the conversation

or does not

demonstrate

dialogue

between

sources.

Essay does not

answer the

assignment

ENGL 3332 Fall 2018 | Dr. Dominy 4

Conformity to

MLA Rules for

Works Cited

Entries

Parenthetical

citations and

works cited

entries are

complete and

may have one

or two in their

format.

Parenthetical

citations and

works cited list

may include

some

formatting

problems but

are complete

and clear in

their attribution

of source

material.

There are

frequent

formatting

problems or

errors with

parenthetical

citations and

works cited

entries, but

they are

complete and

clear in their

attribution of

source

material.

The works cited

entries or

parenthetical

citations are

incomplete has

some significant

problems, but all

quoted and

paraphrased

material is

attributed.

The assignment

has no works

cited entries or no

parenthetical

documentation, or

documentation is

incomplete.

*results in D or

lower on

assignment

Usage,

Grammar, Style

Has few errors

present in its

style and

proofreading.

Errors are

present but do

not distract.

Errors are

distracting, but

do not hinder

understanding.

Errors create

difficult reading

and hinder

understanding.

Errors create an

incomprehensible

essay.