Bibliographic Analysis Essay

(Total Value: 12%)

Due Date: 11/06/08

General Guidelines:

  • Page count: 5 full pages minimum, plus a works cited page. If your paper falls short of the minimum required page count the grade will certainly suffer.
  • Use MLA style.
  • Use the formatting guidelines on the course syllabus.
  • Make certain that the essay has a clear function-statement, which frames the topic and issue that will be examined. Below I discuss the fundamentals of function-statements.
  • 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.”

 

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.

Here is an 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.


3) Make many connections 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.

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.

Although you are required to use 6 sources from your annotated bibliography project, you may use additional new sources beyond the 6 if you wish. However, here are the guidelines for the use of additional sources:

Do not vary from this criteria or one or more of your sources may be invalid; for each invalid source you will lose 10 points.

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.

 

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, prior to the beginning of class, on the due date, and 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: 11/06/08