Semester-long assignment: Annotated Zotero bibliography

Purpose:  To generate a substantial electronic annontated bibliography of sources related to a particular topic in your field. 

This is an ongoing project during the entire session--you will be adding sources during your work for all three paper assignments.  You will receive training in Zotero during the first half of the semester.

The Zotero bibliography will consist of at least 50 items, at least 8 of them annotated.  In addition to the usual fields and your annotations, your notes for each source will note the database used, the major topics (keywords) covered by the source, and whether the source is 1) popular or scholarly, and 2) primary, secondary, or tertiary.

Zotero add-ons and information can be found at http://www.zotero.com

Paper #1:  A description of a current development in your field and explanation of its significance to those outside of the field

Audience: Class members new to your major who have a curiosity or research interest in this particular topic; your English 302 teacher; possibly instructors in your major.

Length: at least 1,500 words, not counting reference page

Purpose:  To describe a current development in your field and to explain its importance to those outside the field.  There are two basic requirements of this paper:

1--You need to describe this development as clearly and concisely as possible for an audience made up of students new to your major who might be interested in exploring or studying this issue or problem.

2--You need to make a compelling, specific, and explicit case explaining the reasons this development is important to the world outside your major -- in other words, why it matters to the rest of us. 

We need to understand and be responsible for the terminology we use given the audience for whom we write.  This means that you need to decide for yourself how much the average GMU student new to your major already knows about the topic and its terminology, and how much that student doesn't know. This will help you in turn decide what kind of vocabulary, detail, and tone will be appropriate for your writing.  

You'll also need to decide what kind of research is appropriate for the paper.  Many of you will rely heavily on popular sources for this paper, though scholarly sources will be helpful or necessary in certain cases. I will require in-text citations and a references page in the citation style of your choice. That references page should include a variety of source material, so that your reader will understand that you are not simply repeating one or two sources without considering audience and purpose.

You will receive a provisional grade on this paper. If you choose to revise the paper, that provisional grade will be entirely replaced by the final grade.

Paper #2: An overview and close analysis of the written conversation surrounding your semester topic

Audience: Again, class members who share your major and have a research interest in this particular topic; your English 302 teacher; possibly instructors in your major

Length: at least 2,000 words, not counting references page

Purpose: To provide an overview of the written "conversation" surrounding your topic and to analyze that conversation using a small group of specific sources as examples.  This paper focuses on the nature of sources and relationship between sources about your topic--it is not an "I" or opinion paper.

Much like paper #1, this paper asks you to accomplish two tasks:

1--Provide a general overview of that written conversation according to the basic categories we've discussed all semester: writer/audience/purpose, popular/scholarly, primary/secondary, etc.  Who generally takes part in the conversation? Who generally "listens" and why? How widespread or narrow is the conversation? The nature and content of this conversation will differ from topic to topic; your job is to accurately portray the written conversation surrounding your topic, wherever that written conversation is happening.

2--Analyze a group of varied sources as specific examples of the more general points you make in your overview. You are responsible for showing the reader how these sources compare and contrast according to writer, audience, and purpose in the context of the "conversation" discussed throughout the semester.  Everything we discuss during the semester, in fact, should help you with this assignment.  I will be looking for you to develop the obvious AND not-so-obvious relationships and I will be looking for you to synthesize your discussion rather than just summarizing one source at a time.  There are multiple possibilities for organizing this portion of the paper--we'll discuss that in class.

Note: Any number of sources can be mentioned in the paper, but your focus should remain on a small group of sources to show how these sources are a reflection of your overview, the larger and broader points you're making about the entire conversation.

In this paper, you should be able to demonstrate (and will be evaluated on) the ability to:

Length: At least 800 words, typed, double-spaced, normal fonts and margins.

Purpose: To provide an accessible and informative guide to research in your field related to the particular topic you've researched for papers #1 and #2.  This guide should be written to and for incoming students in your major, people who haven't yet done this kind of research or taken this kind of class.  (Very important:  Your audience consists of students at any university, not just George Mason.)  I encourage you to use all available resources, including your thinking for papers #1 and #2, your class notes, your previous research, the research librarians (including/especially your liaison librarian), and professors or fellow students in your field; in other words, all of the work you've already done for the course, plus, perhaps, a little extra if you still have gaps in your knowledge.

As this is a guide, please speak to the reader using the word "you" throughout the paper.

Here's a list of general questions to help you as you put together the paper:

--What are the important research databases and other information collections about the topic? What's a good place to start?

--What are the major journals covering this issue?  Who publishes these journals and what is the place of those organizations/publishers in relation to the field?  What is the mix of paper and electronic journals?

--Who seem to be some of the major contributors/experts talking about this issue?  Have any of these people written important books about the issue?

--What does your reader need to know about the relationship between scholarly publications such as journals and popular sources such as magazines and newspapers?  How and where is this issue presented to a larger, non-specialized audience?  Are there beat writers who specialize in this subject for popular sources?

--Are there popular books about this issue (i.e. non-textbook) aimed at a more general audience?  Are there any "cross-over" authors who do scholarly and popular writing on this issue?

--Are there major bibliographic sources for your field?  (This might include a publication that simply lists bibliographic information without "full text" or even abstracts.)

--What kinds of web sources are available and how authoritative/reliable are they?  What seems to be the general level of discourse on the web about this issue?