Annotations!

Hello everyone,

For your annotations, keep in mind the banned topics list:

euthanasia, abortion, gun control, dry/wet Lubbock county, parking at Tech, lack of rain drainage at Tech, steroids, immigration, childhood obesity, anorexia [thin models], school funding, homosexual marriage and/or adoption, standardized testing, hazing, capital punishment, smoking, marijuana and other recreational drugs, ADD/ADHD and evils of Ritalin, paying college athletes, affirmative action, the 10 Percent Rule [college admission], television violence, prayer in schools.

Start thinking about your topic for your 1.2 literature review. Make your research for this week count twice!

Here is a sample annotation:

Gardner, Philip, ed. E.M. Forster: The Critical Heritage. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973.
This book contains nearly 200 reviews of Forster’s various novels. Each of the reviews collected in this edition were published within 15 years of each novel’s publication. The vast majority were published within the year of the initial publication. For A Passage to India, Gardner has collected 39 different book reviews. Of these, 35 were written or published (as one is a letter that was not published until after the author’s death) in 1924, the year A Passage to India was first published. This book is meant for students and scholars of literature who are investigating the contemporary reception of Forster. Keywords: Contemporary Review.

This is an annotation that I did for a class. It isn't necessarily perfect. Be sure that your annotation includes an explanation of the author's thesis/argument, a brief summary, an analysis of the accuracy and quality of the source, the relevance for your paper, and the intended audience. ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE NECESSARY!

Remember to use the Bedford Bibliographer to put together your annotated bibliography. You can do all of your work here! It will organize for you! Also, take a look at the "citation help" link on the right.

Brief Assignment 4

Objective: To demonstrate your ability to analyze the effectiveness of support in an argument.

Description: In a 300-500 word essay, answer one of the following prompts:

o Describe and give examples of the different types of evidence James Baldwin marshals in support of his argument in “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?” (339 – 342). Comment on how convincing you find his argument for recognizing black English as a language.
o How successful is Jonathon Kozol in building his argument about the costs of illiteracy in “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” (383-90)? What specific characteristics of the essay contribute to your evaluation? Be sure to explain fully what types of evidence Kozol uses.
o Martin Alexander’s thesis (556-63) is “that current analytical methods, because they measure total and not bioavailable concentrations, may overestimate the magnitude of the environmental and societal problem from these pollutants.” How does this thesis fit with the research he summarizes in his essay? Relying on Alexander’s summary of the research, count up the number of studies he cites for two topics: the bioavailability of aging chemicals and the effectiveness of analytical procedures. Compare your counts with Alexander’s thesis, and evaluate Alexander’s focus. Does all the research he cites support his thesis? If so, how does it do so? If not, what would you eliminate?

I recommend that you focus on one of the first two choices for this assignment. You can do the third if it interests you, however.

Brief Assignment One, Reading for Class 9/3

Brief Assignment One:
Objective: To identify potential weaknesses in grammar and mechanics for further study this semester

Purpose: Often, students realize that they have trouble with grammar and mechanics, but find it hard to learn to avoid those errors because they aren’t even sure what they are. This assignment requires you to take the pre-semester diagnostic at http://courses.bfwpub.com/smhandbook6e.php and then to write a brief reflection about your score.

Description: To receive full credit for this assignment, you must take the pre-semester diagnostic, and then answer the following:
• What was your score?
• Was it higher or lower than you expected?
• Did you experience any technical difficulties during the diagnostic? If so, what were they?
• After reviewing your results, and based on your previous writing experiences, including your experience in ENGL 1301, if applicable, which particular grammar elements would you like to focus on this semester?

Be sure to answer each of these questions completely to receive full credit! This assignment is due Tuesday, September 2.

Before our next class (Wednesday, September 3), please be sure to read chapter 6 (pages 173-204) in our textbook. We will discuss this reading in class.