Bibliographic
Analysis Essay Exam
(3%)
Exam Date:
MONDAY/WEDNESDAY CLASS:
3/11/09
TUESDAY/THURSDAY CLASS: 3/12/09
NO
TURNITIN.COM SUBMISSION
General Guidelines:
·
The exam is 50 minutes long.
·
This
is a small-scale version of your upcoming Bibliographic Analysis Essay, but this
one will be handwritten during class on the exam date
listed above.
·
Make
certain that the essay has a function statement.
·
The
exam is open book, which means that you
must engage 2 of the scholarly articles (not the
books) from your annotated bibliography.
·
If your Annotated Bibliography is
not turned in by the beginning of class on the exam day you cannot take
this exam, which means a grade of zero will be recorded for this exam, and an
absence will be recorded.
Prompt:
This is NOT
an argumentative essay.
This essay does NOT have a thesis, but rather a function statement.
Definition of a function statement: states that the purpose of the paper is to
explain and analyze a select group of scholarly publications on your topic.
Here is an example of a function statement: "The purpose of this paper is
to examine recent scholarship on the controversial issue of euthanasia."
Essentially, the function-statement establishes for your readers the fact that
the essay is not of an argumentative nature, but rather the business of your paper is to summarize each of your sources.
Grading Criteria:
You have 3
main criteria over which you will be graded:
1) Have a
clear function-statement.
2) Explain
each article, meaning its thesis and key points. It might help to think of the
writing you do on this exam as a comparison/contrast essay.
3) Make many
comparisons and contrasts between the articles, which means that you constantly refer back to articles you have
previously analyzed, for this is a key factor in earning a superior grade.
Explain, for
example, the points over which the authors agree or disagree. You must make
clear the connections between the respective arguments. You might go about this
by using some of the following phrases:
"Smith responds by ..."
"Smith's view is similar to Jones' insofar as ..."
"Smith's view is similar to Jones' and Brown's insofar as ..."
While Smith's view differs from Jones' and Brown's insofar as _______, Smith
appears to agree with Brown on the notion of ..."
Above all, do
remember that you are NOT writing an argumentative essay, but rather an
analysis of selected articles that makes clear their connections, similarities
and differences.
Do not use any articles with an anonymous author. They are
automatically invalid and you will lose 10 points.
Very
Important: This is
not a cut and paste version of your annotated bibliography presented in essay
form. This is an exam that is relatively short in length
and small in scope, you have several days to prepare for it, and it should
demonstrate that you have given much thought to describing your sources
differently than you did in previous writings. It would be a serious error in
judgment to use any of the writing from your annotated bibliography. Neither
should you reword the prose from your annotated bibliography. Failure to
negotiate these aspects of this project successfully could result in a grade as
low as zero on this essay.
Important:
You are not
to reveal your own views on the issue you are writing about, for that should be saved for the Argumentative Research Paper.
Rather, your
objective in this paper is to explain the views and arguments of the respective
authors whose works you are analyzing. You are also explaining the ways in
which those views and arguments either relate to one
another, or how they differ in focus and/or argument.
Exam Date:
MONDAY/WEDNESDAY CLASS:
3/11/09
TUESDAY/THURSDAY CLASS: 3/12/09
NO
TURNITIN.COM SUBMISSION