Author Bio
Due Friday February 24th
The premise of this assignment is that you will produce a document that could be featured on the cover of your
research paper. The author bio can be a maximum of one page, and will feature a paragraph or two of text along
with an image of you. Lastly, the bio will be written in the 3rd person (i.e. Daniel Liddle’s animosity towards
pandas began….). This page should make the reader interested in your essay not only because the topic is
interesting, but because you, the author, are interesting as well.
The goal of the Author Bio is twofold 1) develop a visually attractive document 2) Build up your ethos as a writer.
What this means is that you’ll need to pay careful consideration to two sorts of questions:
Visual Design Questions: Where do you insert the image of your face? How big do you make it? Does it need to
be in color, or does the image work equally well in black and white? What font will you use? Will there be a title to
this document? Why? Would it work to write just your name as the title? Would you want to put a border on this
document? How big should the margins be? Should the whole page be filled with images and text, or will you use
white space to your advantage?
Written Content Questions: Who are you? What kinds of information is usually included in an “about the
author” section, and how would that information relate to you and your paper? What are the distinguishing
factors that make you different, that would make you an appropriate author on this topic? What makes this topic
interesting to you? Why would it be interesting to the average/mainstream reader? How would you describe your
writing style, and how does that style relate to a kind of analysis that someone would want to read?
Evaluation: (20pts Total)
5pts = includes background information about you as a writer
5pts = includes background information about why you are writing about the topic that you are
10pts = Arrangement and visual design of the document
Annotated Bibliography
Due Wednesday February 29th
By this point in the research process you will have found at least ten sources that deal with your topic.
Some of those sources will contain credible information, a few of those sources will come from
questionable locations or have too much bias to be useful. Some of those sources will strongly inform
your research, others will talk about the subject in ways that only peripherally speak to your research
direction.
The annotated bibliography assignment is designed for you to help your reader (mainly, me, your
teacher) to attain a working understanding of the kinds of arguments that your sources make, as well as
indicated the credibility of the sources overall. Remember that this assignment is not only particular to
your topic, but to your research question as well. The research needed for the question of “how has the
fashion of baseball hats changed over time?” certainly overlaps with the question, “why do people leave
the shiny stickers on their hats?” but these would relate in two different annotated bibliographies.
The basic metaphor is that the annotated bibliography is meant to be spread around to others that
might want to research your topic. The central question for grading this assignment becomes: If
someone were to pick up this annotated bibliography, would they be informed enough to make a solid
set of research decisions? Have you “paved the way” so to speak, for the researchers in the future?
Requirements: For this assignment I will require at least 10 sources to be cited in MLA citation with a
corresponding paragraph (150ish words) that describes both the content of the source and its
application to your research. This does not mean that all of these sources must go into your eventual
research paper, so that including the articles that are not helpful is just as important as including the
articles that are helpful. If your research topic points to scholarly articles, you should include scholarly
articles. If your topic points to more pop-culture, you should defend the credibility of the sources you
want to use.
Evaluation: (20pts Total)
5pts = 10 sources that are applicable to your topic
5pts = The Bibliography is correctly formatted
10pts = The description is well written, descriptive, and helps the uninitiated reader 1) to understand the type of
information in the source and 2) to understand the usefulness of the source
3 Example Annotations: (Note: these are good but not perfect examples)
Dewey, Brenda L., Margaret T. Kinzel, and Ted J. Singletary. "Graphing calculator use in algebra teaching." School
Science and Mathematics (2009): Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Oct. 2011.
This source examines graphing calculator availability, characteristics of teachers who use it,
teacher attitudes, and how use reflects changes to algebra curriculum and instructional practices. Though
the topics discussed are not a direct answer to my research topic, I can use specific comments and statistical
data to prove various points that I will try to make in my argument. Based off of the information presented
in the source, it seemed that the experiment done indicated that calculators were beneficial to a student’s
learning and students who used calculators regularly generally scored higher Judging by the length of the
source, as well as the numerous citations and references within it, the source seems credible and the
information is reliable.
Collins, Sandra. “National Sports and other Myths: The Failure of US Soccer.” Taylor and Francis
Online. 25 January 2007. Web. 12 October 2011
This scholarly article taken from the book “Soccer and Society” examines why soccer has not
obtained a strong foothold in America. Specifically, the article looks into Major League soccer with stats
such as salaries and network coverage in order to help explain the issue. Furthermore, several theories
proposed by intellectualists regarding soccer in relation to American exceptionalism and globalization are
mentioned. Lastly, the article ends with an explanation of U.S. soccer shortcomings with a look into class
and race in relation to the top three spectator sports of baseball, basketball, and football.
Although this source is similar to other sources due to the focus on failure of U.S. soccer, the
many references to the Major League Soccer as well as television network coverage is a slant that the other
resources have not studied. Furthermore, the class and race issues raised in the article provide a
perspective that I had never thought of before in depth. This credible scholarly article will be a reliable
source to use for the data and theories it discusses.
Today’s Postal Service. United States Postal Services Online. 1 July. 2007. Web. 11 Oct. 2011
This video is a promotional video for the United States Post Office. It only talks about the pros of
the Postal Services and doesn’t discuss the negative aspects of it. It has a personal, almost fake, interview
that tells a ridiculous story about an individual successfully attempting to ship a pair of pants across the
country. He was so lost in New York City but the Postal Services assisted him in getting his package
shipped and they made him feel more comfortable with his decision to ship the pants instead of physically
delivering the pants himself. This source doesn’t possess very solid information that could be used in the
research paper but it attempts to portray a particularly satisfied view on the postal services that most people
don’t have.