purpose:  You are no doubt familiar with a works cited or bibliography and its purposes—to document the research that you read and cited in your written text.  An annotated bibliography is similar in that it documents the scholarship that you read in preparation for writing your paper, but it also provides a short summary and analysis of each piece.  Annotated bibliographies are incredibly helpful as research organization tools, but they also serve an important function—they help you understand how each source relates to the others as part of a larger academic conversation.  For more information about the annotated bibliography genre, check out this helpful resource published by the DePaul University Center for Writing-based Learning.  

assignment: Each entry in your annotated bibliography should include the following information presented in rhetorical precis format:

[1] Bibliographic citation (either MLA or APA style)
[2] A sentence with a rhetorically active verb that both puts the article into some context—the type of journal or book in which it appears—and describes what the writer is doing with the text (“suggests that,” “argues that,” “implies that,” “urges that,” “claims that,” etc.)
[3] An explanation of how the writer develops, structures, and supports the argument. This is usually done by comparing and contrasting, illustrating, defining, or putting the article into context
[4] An explanation of the writer’s purpose, followed by an “in order to” clause, which explains the intended effect on the audience
[5] A description of the intended audience.

requirements: Your annotated bibliography must include at least SIX sources about your topic—though it may include as many more as you would like, if you are inclined. 

This assignment will be due on Monday, May 8th.  

please note: You will writing and presenting your synthesis of these ideas in a separate multimodal project, so as you're reading and selecting your sources, be mindful of how they relate to one another and the overall, ongoing debate about your topic. 

As always, I’m available for questions if you have them.  Good luck, writers!