Annotated Bibliography

The overcoming/compensation myth is the expectation that society often has of disabled people. Many movies/films/books will use a disabled person as a source of inspiration, stating that the disabled person has ‘overcome’ his/her disability. What they are really saying is that the disabled person is acting more like ‘them’ or like a non-disabled person. It is a way in which non-disabled people try to ‘normalize’ a disabled person. It is insulting in two ways: one is that a person may have low expectations of the disabled person (like Stella Young, who was given an award for not really achieving anything, or someone congratulating her for knowing her name or getting out of bed). Or high expectations, where a disabled person will ‘compensate’ in some way, through hard work, to be more accepted. An example of that would be praising a deaf child because his speech is clear and ‘is almost close to normal.’ That child will never have perfect speech, so it is a no-win situation, and the focus is on sound when it should be more about the child learning language. It is also about expecting a disabled person to be a ‘supercrip,’ which is unfair because a disabled person should not have to go above and beyond in everything they do just to be accepted, get a job, etc.

Overcoming obstacles, in contrast, is something that disabled people do every day because they do not have a choice – they have to find ways to adapt or make their world work for them: this is not the overcoming/compensation myth. For example, a wheelchair user might use a pair of barbecue tongs to pick something up from the ground or a person with dyslexia may choose to wrap their left index finger with a ribbon during a driving test to remind themselves which way is left.  Or someone with dwarfism will place a few wooden stools around the kitchen, so he or she can work on the counter.  

Sources:

1) Barney, Liz. “Bethany Hamilton: Surfing With Only One Arm Isn't as Hard as Beating the Stigma.” Thegaurdian, 25 Aug. 2016, www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/25/bethany-hamilton-surfing-espy-award.

2) “Bethany Hamilton - White Chair Film - I Am Second.” I Am Second, www.iamsecond.com/seconds/bethany-hamilton/.

3) Dolmage, Jay. “An Archive and Anatomy of Disability Myths.” Disability Rhetoric, Syracuse University Press, 2016, pp. 31–61.

4) Kimmel, Kimberly. “Bethany Hamilton: Soul Surfer.” Listen, vol. 59, no. 7, Mar. 2006, pp. 8–10. Research Library, ProQuest, Bethany Hamilton. McNamara, Sean, director. Soul Surfer. TriStar Pictures, 2011.

What is the assignment?

The Annotated Bibliography is designed to introduce you to MLA Works Cited format and to give you the opportunity to read and familiarize yourself with various secondary sources before you begin the DMP Proposal.

Below you will find a list of objectives for the assignment. Be sure to follow the directions outlined in Completing the Assignment carefully.

Your work should be single-spaced, typed in 12-point font, and set to 1” margins.

Objectives:

· Find three secondary sources that are timely, useful, credible, and relevant to your primary source. Your work with these sources should help you revise and extend the work you completed in Step 1: Primary Source Analysis

· At least TWO of your sources should be from a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal (we will discuss what this means in class)

· Correctly use MLA Works Cited list format

· Demonstrate the ability to comprehend the central arguments of these sources

· Describe the sources’ relevance to your main argument

· For each source, create a correctly formatted Works Cited entry in MLA style. See the MLA Handbook or the Purdue OWL (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/) for details

Getting Started:

· Be sure that you understand the difference between a primary and a secondary source. See Who Says?, pg. 73-74 for help.

· Keep in mind that research is not an exact science. Be patient and flexible throughout the process.

· Employ the Shoreline Libraries website to find useful, timely, relevant, and credible electronic or print sources.

Completing the Assignment:

1. For each source, create a correctly formatted Works Cited entry in MLA style. See the MLA Handbook or the Purdue OWL (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/) for details.

2. After each entry, write a paragraph of at least 7-8 sentences that includes:

· A description of the source (where it comes from, who wrote it, how a reader might determine its reliability, etc.)

· A detailed summary of the author’s main argument. For instance, don’t simply say that an article is “about personal confidence.” What, specifically, does the article say about personal confidence?

· An explanation of how the source relates to your argument. For instance, you might explain how this source supports, complicates, or disagrees with your claims, or you may describe which aspects of the source’s argument relate to your argument.