For Monday, November 13

I'm unable to be in Madison due to the weather.  The assignment below is the information I had planned to cover in class.  It concerns the proposal and the tentative bibliography.  Plan on using the class period today and the time between now and Wednesday to prepare that bibliography.  It's not a piece of cake.  You need to have materials found and get them into the right format. 

You should have sent me via email your research topic and an explanation of what you plan to do with it. If you have not done so, this proposal must be done promptly--TODAY.  If you have questions about what you need to send, look again at the information about the Proposal.  Respond to that.  Many of you have not yet done so.  If you haven't looked carefully at the researched essay assignment, it's here:  The Researched Essay.  So far, many of you have no credit for a proposal sent to me. 

On Wednesday, you need to turn in a tentative bibliography, which is a listing of the resources you have found so far to answer the research question you have identified.  It will become the Works Cited page of your researched essay.  The tentative bibliography will be evaluated on both its content and its form. 

1.  Content. This bibliography must include print articles mainly--both books and print articles.  Print articles which you get through Infotrac or other databases are fine.  Internet sources may also be used.  You will use at least ten resources total for your paper. 

Some of you may be tempted to rely heavily on Internet sources.  For some papers, this might be appropriate, but for most, it's the easy way--not the best way.  You may use some Internet sources--no more than half.   However, for each site you use on the Internet (NOT print articles found in a database),  you need to write an evaluation.  See the evaluation criteria here. Remember that part of what you are demonstrating is that you can find materials through the databases provided by the library--those print articles should be your main resource.  When you find a good internet source that covers things the print sources do not, however, use it. 

2.  Form.  Your handbook is key here.  Each resource must be formatted according to the MLA guidelines for preparing a Works Cited.  See your handbook about bibliographic form, or preparing a Works Cited.  Make sure to follow the MLA guidelines.  For example, many databases do not put the key words in the title of the article in capital letters.  The MLA guidelines say you do. 

Print articles found in the library or elsewhere are fairly straightforward and are found in your handbook. 

For print articles from a database (such as Infotrac), list the information as though you had found it in print, and then add the information about the database. 

For internet sites,  you need to again follow the guidelines. 

Two online sites which might be useful for guidelines are here:
The Modern Language Association (MLA):  MLA Style
The Purdue Online Writing Lab:  MLA Format.

3. Means.  For this assignment, you need to either turn in a hard copy of your bibliography or send it to me via email.  If you send it email, you must send it in two forms:  copied into the text of the email message (much of the formatting will be lost) and attached as a Word document.  When you attach the document, make sure that it is NOT OPEN IN WORD when you attach it. 

Write to me if you have questions:  nelsonj@pluto.dsu.edu