For your final major project of the semester, you will be creating an anthology on a topic of your choice. The logical thing would be to think of this as a textbook that you would assign for the class you just created in the Public Syllabus assignment. A more difficult way to approach this assignment is to start with an entirely new topic. The choice is yours.
An anthology is a collection of work by different authors chosen by the editor. Anthologies can be centered around a specific theme, topic, artist, historical event, etc… in other words, there is something that is connecting the pieces chosen by the editor. Looking in my office, I have The Norton Anthology of World Literature, The Anthology of British Women Writers, The Norton Anthology of Women in Literature, an Anthology of Antislavery and Abolition, …another anthology on British Literature. I think it is clear what my major was in school. Anyways, these are big books that are assigned in a class and contain different writers and different analysis on those writers.
You might be saying, “Hey Dr. Whitmore, we literally just did this. Why are we doing this again?” To which I would respond, “Why are you trying to make your life harder? And, this is different.” Here’s how!:
1. It will look awesome. Give your anthology a title and some cover art. Yeah, be creative!
2. Table of contents. A title for your introduction, a list of the sources that will be in the anthology, and page numbers.
3. You will be writing a lot more. Anthologies come with introductions where the editor gives an overview of what the topic is, the history of research on the topic, the rationale behind what has been chosen, summaries of the works included, and how they work with one another. For you, this will be at the beginning of your anthology and should be about 5-6 pages long.
4. Annotated bibliography. This will be a separate assignment so you will turn this in before the final anthology is due. Since you are not actually publishing this anthology, this will take the place of the articles/sources in your work. An annotated bibliography is the MLA citation of your source with a paragraph summary of the work.
5. Author’s note. Because we need to end a book somehow, right? This goes on that last page and develops your ethos as the creator of this anthology. It just tells your audience who you are, what you are interested in, and why this is a topic that speaks to you.
As you can see, visually the paper will look different and it will still require an essay from you. So, what will this essay look like. Well, probably like a research essay, using the sources you have in that annotated bibliography. You will be analyzing, arguing, and synthesizing, among many other skills.
1. Introduce your topic. This is the topic that is being carried through this anthology, so why is it important? Why is this a topic that deserves an entire anthology of work? What do these works together, and your analysis of them, lead to? In other words, what is the general understanding of the topic after a student would read this anthology in whole? That is your thesis and it needs to be making a strong claim.
2. History of research. If applicable, you need to go over a history of research on this topic. What arguments have been made in the past? If some of those arguments are ones that you end up using in your anthology, make a note of that, but don’t go into detail yet. Here, you can reenter your thesis and start to expand it a bit: what are you, and this collection of work, entering into that conversation? What is your contribution to the study of this topic?
3. Exploration of your topic. This is now your argument and analysis that supports the thesis. You will begin using your sources for evidence. Use quotes from these secondary sources. Again, this paper is now making a strong claim so be sure this isn’t just presenting information, but is arguing how one should be reading this information to understand the topic.
4. Summary, synthesis, and understanding of sources. At the end of this paper, come back to the sources you are including in the anthology. Explain to your reader why you have chosen these sources, how they relate or differ from one another, and give a brief summary of each one. It should still make sense within the paper, so don’t just copy and paste the same summaries from the annotated bibliography.
Your sources included in the anthology can be books, podcasts, films, tv shows, songs, albums, pieces of art, newspaper articles, book chapters, magazine articles, scholarly articles…the choice is yours and what will help your own anthology.
Your anthology needs to consist of a minimum of 5 sources; at least two need to be from a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.
The anthology needs page numbers throughout.
Avoid use of personal pronouns; this includes the word “you.” Avoid using “you” for the indefinite pronoun–meaning a person, people, everyone. Use “one”
or “someone” or “people,” as the case requires.
So one more time. This is what your anthology consists of:
1. A title page with cover art (like the cover of a book)
2. A table of contents
3. Your essay, 5-6 pages. You may consider this a research essay on your topic that gives an overview of your topic and tells us about the sources in the annotated bibliography.
4. Your annotated bibliography of at least 5 sources, at least 2 which are scholarly.
5. An “about me” author’s page.
