ENGLISH 102 ESSAY 3— BIBLIOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
ESSAY REQUIREMENTS:
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Length: 4 to 6 typed pages or 1000-1500 words.
Sources: Inclusion of 8-10 sources (not more than 1 should come from E1 unit essays/readings
from the reader). These sources should come from Essay 2A and 2B or should be approved by
your instructor.
Format: MLA style, 12 pt. font, Times New Roman
Audience: Written for a general academic audience open to learning about the background of the
your given topic (which is also the class topic) and your area(s) of interest
OVERALL GRADE DISTRIBUTION:
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Essay 3 Folder: 5% of total class grade
Essay 3 Final Draft: 15% of total class grade
*The above essay requirements are required of every Essay 3, for all sections of English 102; however,
the following description and evaluation information are presented as general guidelines. You should see
your instructor for specific description and evaluation information concerning this essay for your class.
SEMESTER OVERVIEW: As with Essay 2, you will write Essay 3 in further preparation for Essay 4, the
Argumentative Research Paper. The Bibliographical Analysis Essay is one in which you make
connections between sources or synthesize the material you have gathered. Your goal in writing this essay
is to call upon whatever research you have collected to address the various angles of your chosen
controversial topic and to use your sources to offer multiple solutions or answers to a problem or question
you have tentatively posed.
INVESTIGATIVE ESSAY PURPOSE AND STRUCTURE: The following suggests how you might organize the
Bibliographical Analysis Essay: In the introduction, you will probably want to fulfill two purposes. First,
you should pose one or two controversial questions you have asked yourself regarding your topic upon
finishing E2B—these questions could be the same basic ones you had asked since writing Essay 1 or new
questions you have raised since completing Essay 2B. Second, you should present your rationale
concerning why you desire to cover the topic and offer reasons why an audience including you, your
classmates, and the greater community might care about this topic. In the thesis, then, you will want to
describe the manner in which sources fit together by either echoing one another, repudiating opposing
claims, presenting a unique and newly brainstormed idea, or etc. More particularly, you may want to offer
one of the following types of descriptive organizational theses: 1) one illustrating the topic’s historical
timeline, 2) one showcasing multiple issues, or 3) one grounding contending opponents. Here is a series
of sample organizational theses, including each of the aforementioned types:
Historical timeline: Many historians, literary and scholarly writers, nations, and archaeologists have
been fixated on the question of where the ancient city of Troy lies, if it existed at all. The location,
history, and people of Troy have been written about by Homer in poetry; the city has been claimed by
Romans as a place of mythological origin, and possible sites have been excavated by Heinrich
Schliemann and others.
Multiple Issues: Research on capital punishment in the United States concentrates on statistics about the
number, sex, and race of inmates sentenced in the various states in which the practice is legal, the pros
and cons of the practice of capital punishment, and the costs and legal issues in carrying out state
executions.
Contrasting Sides: Those in favor of coal energy believe that American businesses must have the
freedom to create competitive products and services and that companies that do well economically impact
their communities in a beneficial manner; however, opponents argue that the burning of coal, similar to
the use of other nonrenewable energy sources, produces detrimental effects both on people’s individual
health and the earth’s overall environment.
In the Essay 3 thesis, which should be organizational and descriptive, you will show how your sources
engage with one another, but at the same time, you will remain neutral on the topic. That is, you must
decline to inject your own viewpoint concerning the topic into the discussion. You should wait until
writing Essay 4 for the opportunity to argue your particular “side” and place yourself in a particular camp.
The following questions represent points of analysis you may choose to address: 1) What type of writers
take up this subject, and what seem to be their reasons?, 2) What kind of audiences do writers seem to be
addressing or attempting to address in their writings?, 3) What kinds of venues of publication have the
selected writers preferred, and which venues seem to provide the most reliable information?, 4) When did
most of the selected writers publish on this topic—is the debate relatively new, or has it been ongoing?, 5)
What type of concerns, such as those moralistic, religious, scientific, etc., do writers pose about this
topic?, and 6) What writing strategies do writers prefer to use in reaching an audience, the use of logical,
emotional, or ethical appeals, a dependence on scientific studies or statistics, a reliance on visual charts,
graphs, or pictures, etc.?
In critiquing any of the former points of analysis, you will want to make certain you have addressed
numerous and diverse types of sources.
Finally, in the conclusion or last body paragraph, you will probably want to call the reader’s attention to
any areas that you believe researchers have either failed to address fully or perhaps neglected to address at
all and offer a plausible accounting for this failure in the research.
EVALUATION: Competent Bibliographical Analyses should:
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Demonstrate a satisfactory ability to move from Essay 2 to Essay 3, as they undergo the process
of re-evaluating their E2 issue or topic, investigating it further via writing, and then drafting,
revising, and editing to create a final product
Present a satisfactory genre example of the academic biographical analysis form
Demonstrate a satisfactory understanding of how to construct an essay that features a descriptive
organizational thesis and focused, organized paragraphs
Offer, in a satisfactory manner, supporting proof or claims to back up general, abstract premises,
present a balance of both textual summary and analysis, and synthesize the 8 to 10 required
sources
Evaluate satisfactorily the implicit or explicit audiences for various sources
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Choose a satisfactory range of reliable, authoritative sources
Conform satisfactorily with MLA or APA standards in including citations and composing a
works cited page
Demonstrate a satisfactory ability to utilize stylistic principles meant to hook and hold the
reader’s interest, including variety in language and syntax use
Demonstrate a satisfactory ability to write using Standard American English. While essays
deemed average may suffer from one or two egregious errors and/or several less offensive errors,
the kinds and numbers of errors should not undermine readers’ ability to comprehend and interact
with the content.
Writing Center Locations:
Morris Library, Room 236 (453-1231)
Trueblood, Lower-Level (453-2927)
*For information about Writing Center hours, call the above phone numbers or consult the
following website: www.write.siuc.edu