Bibliographic Analysis Essay Exam

(3%)

Exam Date: 

MONDAY/WEDNESDAY CLASS: 3/11/09

TUESDAY/THURSDAY CLASS: 3/12/09      

NO TURNITIN.COM SUBMISSION

General Guidelines:

·         The exam is 50 minutes long.

·         This is a small-scale version of your upcoming Bibliographic Analysis Essay, but this one will be handwritten during class on the exam date listed above.

·         Make certain that the essay has a function statement.

·         The exam is open book, which means that you must engage 2 of the scholarly articles (not the books) from your annotated bibliography.

·         If your Annotated Bibliography is not turned in by the beginning of class on the exam day you cannot take this exam, which means a grade of zero will be recorded for this exam, and an absence will be recorded.

 

   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 2 sources from your annotated bibliography.

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 writing you do on this exam 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.

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.

Do not use any articles with an anonymous author. They are automatically invalid and you will lose 10 points.

Very Important: This is not a cut and paste version of your annotated bibliography presented in essay form. This is an exam that is relatively short in length and small in scope, you have several days to prepare for it, 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. 

Important:

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 and/or argument. 

Exam Date: 

MONDAY/WEDNESDAY CLASS: 3/11/09

TUESDAY/THURSDAY CLASS: 3/12/09      

NO TURNITIN.COM SUBMISSION