Annotated Bibliography

Due Thurs., March 31

Please attach your original topic proposal with my comments.
Should consist of:

1. Revised topic description / emerging thesis

A paragraph-long “abstract” that describes your (re-)focused topic PLUS your emerging thesis,
your thought process so far, OR the path you’ve taken in your research until now.

2. MLA citations for at least five sources, two of which should be non-Internet-based. Each
should be followed by an annotation that summarizes the work’s main idea or argument (if it is
a critical source) AND its relevance to your project.

Your annotated bibliography might look like this:

Topic Description
My original research question was “How has social media affected social activism?” Hypothesis:
While new social media tools can accelerate social change, these tools fail to provide the strong
ties and hierarchical structures necessary for real, high-risk activism, because they cultivate only
weak personal ties between members of decentralized networks.
I plan to compare Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be
Tweeted” to the many responses it brought about, as well as several articles about the recent
revolutions in the Middle East, to prove why he is totally, absolutely right. Is it a problem that my
central thesis is basically a paraphrasing of his article’s argument?

Sources, with annotations

Author Last Name, First Name. “Article.” Website. Publisher, date. Web. Date of access.
- Author’s “Article” argues that Gladwell’s article places undue emphasis on the method of
communication, when what really matters in revolution is the message, not its medium. I plan
to acknowledge this argument and show the flaws in its reasoning, namely that the Internet
means the end of society as we know it.

Gladwell, Malcolm. “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted.” The New
Yorker, 04 Oct. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2011.
- Gladwell’s article makes the same claim I do. I will compare it to these other articles to show
why Gladwell is so right.

These will be graded as follows:

- Topic description (quality of topic; quality of emerging thesis or thought process so far)—
30%
- Quality of sources (relevant, reliable)—20%
- Quality of annotations (summary with relevance explained)—30%
- MLA style—20%
Essay 3—Comparing sources
Due: Thurs., April 7
Length: 550-700 words, excluding citations and Works Cited page.
Minimum works cited: 2.

Compare two texts to draw a conclusion, or make a claim, about an issue related to the
Web.

One of these texts should be an assigned reading for this class. The other can be another
assigned reading, something you read on your own, or Catfish. If you’re looking for a good
outside text, be sure to check the ones at readingtheinternet.wordpress.com/discuss/. The two
texts should address a similar topic or theme—such as privacy, online relationships, the social
media and social movements, Wikipedia, or the effect of the Web on the mind—so that your
essay has focus.

Your essay should use specific details and quotes to explore this issue and ultimately prove a
claim, with all that entails (reasoning, acknowledgment of other views, explicit principles).

Please review the errors and comments on your last essay. Grading will follow the same scale:
- Quality of ideas / analysis: 40%
- Organization / development: 30%
- Clarity / style: 20%
- Sentence “cleanliness”: 10%