The Annotation

For Part One of your eventual SCE project you will complete an annotated bibliography. When we annotate our sources, we do more than keep records of what we read for citation purposes. In effect, we begin to move our critical thinking and research into argumentation. We ask questions such as, “What does this source or critic say?” But also, and more importantly questions such as, “How might are use this information for my analysis, interpretation? What are, for my project, the uses and the limitations of this critical/theoretical reading? How does this interpretation support and challenge my assumptions?”

 

Assignment Guidelines: In approximately 250 words, compose an annotation of one secondary source (an article or book chapter) relevant to the topic you are exploring for your Seminar Project. The source must be accurately cited in either MLA or Chicago style (your choice). The annotation serves the purpose of (1) summarizing the source, (2) emphasizing its main contribution to the topic you are exploring, and (3) explaining how this source will further an argument of your own—in other words, the uses and limits of this source for your project.

 

At the top of the page, in 1-3 sentences, provide a provisional statement of the emerging argument for your Seminar Project (however hypothetical it might be at this point): topic, problem/question, response.

In order to do an effective annotation, you should be familiar with the primary text that the article/book chapter takes as its subject.

Example [from Purdue OWL]:

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor Books, 1995.

Lamott’s book offers honest advice on the nature of a writing life, complete with its insecurities and failures. Taking a humorous approach to the realities of being a writer, the chapters in Lamott’s book are wry and anecdotal and offer advice on everything from plot development to jealousy, from perfectionism to struggling with one’s own internal critic. In the process, Lamott includes writing exercises designed to be both productive and fun. Lamott offers sane advice for those struggling with the anxieties of writing, but her main project seems to be offering the reader a reality check regarding writing, publishing, and struggling with one’s own imperfect humanity in the process. Rather than a practical handbook to producing and/or publishing, this text is indispensable because of its honest perspective, its down-to-earth humor, and its encouraging approach. Chapters in this text could easily be included in the curriculum for a writing class. Several of the chapters in Part 1 address the writing process and would serve to generate discussion on students’ own drafting and revising processes. Some of the writing exercises would also be appropriate for generating classroom writing exercises. Students should find Lamott’s style both engaging and enjoyable.

 

Evaluation Rubric [25 points]

23-25: Discusses texts with an independent intellectual and ethical disposition so as to further or maintain disciplinary conventions, persuasively identifying critical implications and extending beyond what’s already known.

20-22: Elaborates on the texts (through interpretation or questioning) so as to deepen or enhance an ongoing discussion, effectively identifying critical implications and the relation to what’s already known.

16-19: Discusses texts in ways that contribute to a basic, shared understanding of the text, but limited in identifying critical implications and/or the relation to what’s already known.

10-15: Comments about texts in ways that preserve the author’s meanings but fail to identify critical implications and/or an understanding of what is already known about the topic.

Below 10: failed to complete assignment as expected.