Bibliographic Analysis Essay

Bibliographic Analysis Essay

(Total Value: 12%)

Due Date:

MONDAY/WEDNESDAY CLASS: 4/1/09

TUESDAY/THURSDAY CLASS: 4/2/09

TURNITIN.COM SUBMISSION REQUIRED, TEN (10) MINUTES OR MORE PRIOR TO BEGINNING OF CLASS ON OR BEFORE THE DUE DATE, AFTER WHICH THE PAPER WILL LOSE 10% FOR ONE CLASS PERIOD LATE, PER LATE WORK POLICIES ON THE COURSE SYLLABUS.

General Guidelines:

Page count: 5 full pages minimum to six full pages maximum, plus a works cited page. If your paper falls short of the minimum required page count the grade will certainly suffer.
Remember to give your essay a two part title, separated by a colon, and neither part should read “Bibliographic Analysis Essay.”
You are required to turn in your paper in a pocket folder, along with printed copies of your outside sources. Failure to negotiate this properly will cost points. Do not turn in your project as a mass of papers stapled together, nor should it be in a three-ring binder or anything other than a pocket folder.
You must also turn in an electronic copy of your essay to turnitin.com prior to class on the due date, and it must be the same exact version as the paper copy you turn in for final grading. To be on the safe side, review section 14 of the syllabus under the subject heading “How to Turn in Course Work.”
In terms of what type of final grade this paper can earn, you should read the grading criteria (below) carefully, and before turning in your paper, perform a final proofread against the grading criteria.
It is important for you to realize that this assignment must be written in the same prose style required from the Connections Essay forward, for some weeks ago we shifted our emphasis from personal writing to academic prose. We will spend time in class devoted to the particulars of academic prose, so papers that use a personal writing prose style will receive an unsatisfactory grade at best.
Use MLA Style Guidelines.
Use the formatting guidelines established during class lectures and on the course syllabus.
Make certain that the essay has a clear function-statement located as the final sentence of the introductory paragraph. The function-statement which frames the topic and issue that will be examined. Below I discuss the fundamentals of function-statements.
Use a document header, as you should on all assignments, regardless of their length.

Prompt:

This is NOT an argumentative essay.
This essay does NOT have a thesis, but rather a function statement.

Definition of a function statement: states that the purpose of the paper is to explain and analyze a select group of scholarly publications on your topic.

Example of a function statement: "The purpose of this paper is to examine recent scholarship on the controversial issue of euthanasia."

Essentially, the function-statement establishes for your readers the fact that the essay is not of an argumentative nature, but rather the business of your paper is to summarize each of your sources.

This essay comes from the research done for your annotated bibliography. In other words, you are writing about the articles you researched for your annotated bibliography.
You must cite a minimum of 6 sources from your annotated bibliography, which means both in-text citations and works cited page citations.

Grading Criteria:

You have 3 main criteria over which you will be graded:

1) Have a clear function-statement.
2) Explain each article, meaning its thesis and key points. It might help to think of the analysis you do on this essay as a comparison/contrast essay.
3) Make many comparisons and contrasts between the articles, which means that you constantly refer back to articles you have previously analyzed, for this is a key factor in earning a superior grade.

To further explain the 3 main grading criteria:

Explain, for example, the points over which the authors agree or disagree. You must make clear the connections between the respective arguments. You might go about this by using some of the following phrases:
"Smith responds by ..."
"Smith's view is similar to Jones' insofar as ..."
"Smith's view is similar to Jones' and Brown's insofar as ..."
While Smith's view differs from Jones' and Brown's insofar as _______, Smith appears to agree with Brown on the notion of ..."

Above all, do remember that you are NOT writing an argumentative essay, but rather an analysis of selected articles that makes clear their connections, similarities and differences.

This essay will not do well unless you come right out and say how your respective sources are similar and/or different in focus and/or argument. Do not leave it up to me to puzzle out where you see these similarities and differences. Look at the example language above, such as “Smith’s view is similar to Jones’ insofar as . . .,” and make many claims along those lines, otherwise the essay will receive an unsatisfactory grade at best.

Criteria That Determines a Valid Outside Source: (we will go over this at length during class)

You cannot use newspapers, magazines, websites, or any web-related material that can be reached with just an Internet connection. In other words, you must use the OSU library interface to use databases to which the OSU library subscribes.
Your outside sources must be articles from peer-reviewed scholarly journals, and the articles must have the equivalent of a works cited section at the end, which might also be titled as one of the following: references, bibliography, sources cited, and so on. Alternatively, there may be no such section at the end, but the articles might be footnoted throughout, which is also acceptable if the footnotes give the publication information that is typically found in a works cited citation.
An article must be a minimum of five pages in length, or it will be considered invalid.
Do not use articles from anonymous authors, or they will be considered invalid.

Grading Criteria for your Prose Style and for Formatting (papers will also be graded on all other guidelines addressed in this prompt):

Use a document header, as you should for all assignments.
Use a two-part title separated by a colon, neither part of which should contain the name of the assignment.
The formatting guidelines on the syllabus/class lectures must be observed.
The paper should meet the page count requirements, and all other requirements of this prompt and the syllabus.
Writing must be free—or predominantly free—of typos, awkward/unclear phrasing, and sentence level errors.
Do not use contractions.
Do not use first person pronouns such as “I” “me” “my.”
Do not use second person pronouns such as “you” “your” “yours.”
Do not engage in personal stories, meaning stories of your own life experiences, or the experiences of friends, family, and so on.
Do not begin sentences with conjunctions: but, and, or, nor, for, so, yet.
Do not pose any questions in any assignments. This means, quite literally, not to use questions. Make statements instead.
Do not quote the bible or make allusions to religion in any way.
Avoid any form of direct address to the reader, such as "think about the fact that . . ."
Avoid too casual of a prose style, such as sentences that begin with words like "well, sure, now, yes, no."
Do not use the phrase “a lot,” which can usually be replaced with one of the following words: many, most, much.

Very Important:

· This is not a cut and paste version of your annotated bibliography presented in essay form. This is a new project for which you have weeks to draft and revise, and it should demonstrate that you have given much thought to describing your sources differently than you did in previous writings. It would be a serious error in judgment to use any of the writing from your annotated bibliography. Neither should you reword the prose from your annotated bibliography. Failure to negotiate these aspects of this project successfully could result in a grade as low as zero on this essay.

· Remember that MLA Style Guidelines is a critically important element of this course, and if you negotiate them at an exceedingly low skill level this paper will receive an unsatisfactory grade at best.

· You are not to reveal your own views on the issue you are writing about, for that should be saved for the Argumentative Research Paper.

· Rather, your objective in this paper is to explain the views and arguments of the respective authors whose works you are analyzing. You are also explaining the ways in which those views and arguments either relate to one another, or how they differ in focus.

How to turn in this essay: a paper copy is due during class on the due date. Additionally, an electronic copy is due, ten (10) minutes or more prior to the beginning of class on or before the due date, after which the paper will lose 10% for one class period late, per late work policies on the course syllabus; it must be turned in to TurnItIn.com as a MS Word doc or docx file. Use the TurnItIn.com “file upload” method on the submit screen. You will be instructed during class about how to create a TurnItIn.com account, and how to turn in your work. Your essays will be considered late until both the paper copy and the electronic copies are turned in. All other rules for late work, as delineated in section six of the course syllabus, also apply. Moreover, your electronic turn-in must be an exact duplicate of the paper copy. In other words, no further corrections or revisions will be accepted. Also, if the electronic and paper copies do not match up it will have a negative impact on the assignment’s grade.

Due Date:

MONDAY/WEDNESDAY CLASS: 4/1/09

TUESDAY/THURSDAY CLASS: 4/2/09