Source requirement: eight sources minimum (not including Eating Animals) Purpose and Overview The purpose of Writing Assignment #6 is to get you started conducting research for your final essay. In this formal writing assignment, you will be constructing an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography is a collection of sources that you locate, read, evaluate, and consider using for a research paper. Background See the relevant web pages regarding annotated bibliographies on Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) (Links to an external site.) : https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/annotated_bibliographies/index.html Writing Task For your final argumentative essay, you will be contributing to our class conversation started by Jonathan Foer’s book Eating Animals. To do this, you will need to use credible sources that back up your position. This annotated bibliography will get you started researching. An annotated bibliography summarizes, assesses and reflects upon sources that might be used in a research paper. For each source, your annotated bibliography will need to include a citation, a summarization, an assessment and a reflection. Depending on how you want to organize it, reflection and assessment can be combined into one paragraph or divided into two separate paragraphs. Cite: Each entry needs to begin with an MLA style citation. Summarize: Each entry needs a summary that addresses the source’s main point and what topics are covered. Make sure you avoid list summaries and closest cliché summaries. Each summary should be a separate paragraph. Assess: After the summary, evaluate the source. Is it credible and current? Is it relevant? What is its bias? How does it compare to your other sources? Is it scholarly or popular or both? Reflect: After the assessment, reflect about how this source might be used in your research project. How will it fit into your overall argument? Did it influence your opinion about your topic? How does it connect to your other sources? Is it helpful? Too general/specific? You will need to have a minimum of eight sources (not including Eating Animals). Select your sources with care, for the strength of a research-based argumentative essay depends upon the strength of the sources. Authors and publishers should be credible. Your sources should represent a variety of perspectives on this topic to demonstrate that you considered more than one point of view. If you take your time and locate quality, relevant sources for this assignment, you will make your life much easier when it comes time to write your final essay.
