Part One: Annotated Bibliography Project:
To make these guidelines easy to understand, I am going to use five simple sections,
as follows:
1) Why Annotated Bibliography is important to the Bibliographical Analysis Essay
2) What an annotated bibliography is.
3) An example of an entry.
4) A checklist of everything that should be included.
5) The guidelines for the Bibliographic Analysis Essay.
Section 1: Why Annotated Bibliography is so important to the Bibliographical
Analysis Essay.
Because all the research you do for this project must be used again in the
Bibliographical Analysis Essay . Whatever topic you research and write about for
your annotated bibliography is your topic for the rest of the semester.
Section 2: What is an annotated bibliography?
It's made up of 10 - 15 entries, and each entry has 2 parts: an MLA style citation and
an annotation.
Basically, you research 10-15 scholarly articles, all on the same topic, and then you
write an entry for each one.
Section 3: An example of an entry:
A citation provides the publishing information on your scholarly article. It says
where the article was published, who wrote it, and a few other things we'll learn about
in class.
An annotation is a short summary of the scholarly article, and it's also a critique of it.
Therefore, your annotations do two things:
1) explain, or summarize, what the article is about, and the article's thesis is
summarized in your first sentence.
2) evaluate why the article is a worthwhile one to read.
Your goal here is that anyone who reads your final work will know what each
scholarly article's argument is. They will also know the problems or solutions, if any,
that the article proposes. Finally, they will know whether the article is of a superior
nature, or if they should go look for a different scholarly on this subject.
Here is an example of an entry:
Miller, Brian, Gerado Ceballos, and Richard Reading. “The Prairie Dog and Biotic
Diversity.” Conservation Biology 8.3 (1994): 677-81. Since the turn of this
century, prairie dog populations have declined up to 98% throughout North
America, largely due to prairie dog eradication programs. The prairie dog is a
keystone species that plays an important role in maintaining the biotic
integrity of the western grasslands from southern Canada to northern Mexico.
Prairie dog depopulation has degraded diversity on those prairies, and
several species depending on prairie dogs now have listing status under the
Endangered Species Act. Some form of legal protection for prairie dogs is
needed. Positive incentives for ranchers to watch over the interests of both
livestock and wildlife will enhance the attitude change necessary for grassland
conservation. These incentives hinge critically on an end to U.S. government
subsidies for prairie dog eradication programs. The subsidies are financially
and ecologically unsound, and contribute to the prevailing misconceptions
about the role of the prairie dog on the grasslands.
Section 4: Here is your checklist:
____
I am turning in 10-15 entries.
____
I don't start a new page for each entry.
____
One of my entries is from an appropriate website.
____ None of my entries are from magazines or from publications with
advertisements in them.
____
None of my entries are based on book reviews.
____ I am turning in copies of all ten or fifteen of my articles, which means the
entire article, with my annotated bibliography
____ I individually stapled each article, rather than handing in loose pages or one
big mass of papers.
____
I wrote my name on the front page of each individual article.
____
I stapled the annotated bibliography together.
____
I am handing in one copy of my annotated bibliography.
____ Each annotation I wrote is a minimum of 100 words to a maximum of 150
words, which doesn't include the words in the citation.
____
I realize that for each copy of an article that I don't hand in my grade on this
project will be reduced by 5 points, even if I have written an entry for that
article.
____
I realize that for each entry that I don't write, or if it is incomplete, my grade
on this project will be reduced by 5 points.
____
I realize that once I turn in this project, no matter whether I turn it in on time
or late, additional turn-ins of articles and/or entries won't be accepted.
____
I am using MLA style as discussed during the semester.
During class there will be much direct instruction from me regarding your approach
to this project. I will also assist you during peer revisions and am available for
questions via office hours and by appointment.
Part Two: Bibliographic Analysis Essay :
General Guidelines:






Page count: 8 full pages minimum to 10 full pages maximum, plus a Works
Cited page.
Hand in all drafts that have led up to this essay, both in-class and out-of-class
writings.
Hand in copies of all books/articles cited in this essay. (For articles, hand in
the entire article. For each book, turn in a minimum of 10 copied pages,
making certain to copy all the pages from which you have quoted or
paraphrased, plus the title page with the publication information.)
Use MLA style in accordance with class instruction.
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. Please, find below the fundamentals of
function-statements.
Prompt:
This is NOT an argumentative essay.
This essay has a function statement as its thesis statement.
Here is the definition of a function statement: a function 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
different approaches to the controversial issue of free trade."
Essentially, the function statement establishes for your readers the fact that the essay
is not of an argumentative nature, but rather the objective of your paper is to
summarize each of your sources.


This essay comes from the research done for your annotated bibliography.
You must cite a minimum of 9 sources from your annotated bibliography,
which means both in-text and works cited page citations.
 There are 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 (as you did in your out of class
essay), which means that you constanly refer back to articles you have previously
analyzed. 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.

You may use additional sources beyond the 9 if you wish.

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.