National University of Singapore

UWC2101H: Writing and Critical Thinking: Power, Space and Pleasure

Paper 3: Presentations of Annotated Bibliographies

Rationale

What is the point of presenting your annotated bibliography to the class? It is simply this: to provide you with the opportunity to spell out, to the class and to yourself, how you will be using the most important sources in the paper you are writing. Doing so will not only compel you to find sources relating to your topic, but to read them closely and critically. This will provide you with an implicit structure for your paper. Finally, presenting the bibliography provides you with the opportunity to receive feedback on your ideas from class members, in particular as these ideas relate to your sources.

Note: Please be reminded that your your Paper 3 presentation will be graded, and that this will make up 10% of your module grade. See the Policy page (Assessment and Class Attendance).

What to Do before Class

Prepare a list of the sources you will be using in your paper. For the purposes of the presentation, the list needs to include your case: spell out which case you are interested in studying, and why. Have a good sense of what your topic is, and make sure it concerns your case. The case should be the one primary source (or smaller set of primary sources) of your own choosing, and should come from outside the module syllabus. OR it should be a set of shorter texts about your case. Then, you should gather--and read before the presentation--three secondary sources. Of the secondary sources, one needs to come from the module syllabus; you need to use this source conceptually (see below). You need to find the other two secondary sources independently, which is why you have attended the Library Instruction Tutorial; it is up to you how you will use them in your paper (again, see below).

Please note: You will of course be free to use, in your paper itself, more than the three secondary sources that you need to list for the presentation of your Annotated Bibliography. In fact, you are likely to use more than three. But to keep things manageable for the presentation, you should list only the three secondary sources that are most important in your view

For the purposes of your presentation, your main focus needs to be your secondary sources, and your task is therefore to show how you will relate each of them to your case--which is your primary source/s. You should ask this question: what role will each of my secondary sources play in my argument?

Very important reminder: Of course, make sure that you first of all--on your first slide--tell us what your topic is, how it relates to your primary source,and what argument you are thinking of making about it. That is, you must, on this first slide, present us with a provisional motive as well as a working thesis.

The Purpose of Secondary Sources

Once you have decided on a case and come up with a topic for your paper which will concern the primary source/s on which you'll focus--remember, the primary source is the "uninterpreted data" (Harvey 1) which helps you to set up a motive--you will need to find secondary sources to help you make your argument. Each of these sources must fulfil at least one of these two functions:

1. It must work conceptually, offering you a key concept or concepts (as expressed in a key terms), or:
2. It must provide you with information relating to your topic, and/or the primary source/s, and/or the secondary sources that you are using in a conceptual way. Let's call this contextual use of the secondary source.

Using a source for conceptual reasons means you are using it as a lens: the text helps you understand an aspect of your topic better by allowing you critically to relate a concept to another text, whether your primary or another secondary source. Using a source for contextual reasons means you are using it simply to help set context for dealing with the topic: it presents you with information relating to e.g. where the text comes from, when it was written, what people think about the topic, or other context-related issues. Of course, it may be possible to use a secondary source both conceptually and contextually. The most important point in the case of your presentation of your annotated bibliography is to spell out how you will be using each of your sources.

Grading Criteria: What to Do in Class

Please take note of the following requirements pertaining to the presentations:

• Each student will have a maximum of 10 minutes to present her or his annotated bibliography. Please ensure that you stick to this limit so there is sufficient time left for discussion.
• Strive to make your presentation accessible to your audience: do so by focusing on orienting your audience. Additionally, it would be helpful to your audience if you could speak as clearly as possible (don't mumble); not speak too fast; and make eye contact.
• As far as the format is concerned, you should make use of a brief PowerPoint presentation: use at least 4 but no more than 6 slides. Do not exceed this limit; at the same time, do not cram your slides too full. Be sharp and succinct in them, that is, too the point.
• As mentioned above, the first slide should present your topic, which should be about your case. You should therefore here list your primary source, provisional motive, and working thesis.
• In the remainder of the presentation you should devote 1 slide per source, and on each slide you should indicate the following:
  1. At the top of the slide list the complete details of the source, using the MLA format (see Harvey, Writing with Sources 43-58).
  2. Then offer context on the source in order to orient your audience: by means of one or two bullet points tell the audience the discipline of the author/s, and then very briefly summarize the argument source.
  3. Finally, and crucially, outline how you think the source will relate to your topic (and thus to your case), as well as to the argument that you are thinking of making in the paper: i.e., highlight how you intend using it in your paper -- which concepts from it will you be applying and/or what information/context will it provide you with?

Your grade will depend on the degree to which your presentation conforms to these requirements, which thereby constitute my criteria for assessing it.

What to Do after Class

You need to upload your PowerPoint presentation within 24 hours after class. Upload to the IVLE Workbin, Presentations Folder. Note the grading criteria above.

Work Cited

Harvey, Gordon. Writing with Sources. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.