Assignment sheet for ENGL 309, Project 2.

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Project 2:
Semester Topic Proposal and Annotated
Bibliography (50 points)
The point of this course is to learn about the rhetorical nature of style. We will do this by deeply
inhabiting a topic - exploring it across a range of different audiences, genres, and purposes. The
ideal topic will be one that is personally significant to you, but which also has significant social
dimensions (and since there’s really nothing in human experience that’s truly individual, this
shouldn’t be too difficult). Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Welcome to Cancerland” serves as a model for
the kind of topic you want: obviously her diagnosis of breast cancer was deeply significant to
her as an individual, but the essay she wrote about it is rich in cultural and social meaning.
Learning Objectives
After completing this project, you should be able to…
 Identify a topic that you’re excited about working with for the rest of the course.
 Explain the personal, social, and historical significance of that topic.
Project Deliverables
1. Semester Topic Proposal
This is a formal proposal for a topic that you intend to research and write about this semester.
This topic will be the basis of four projects: a white paper (solving a problem for a professional
audience), an imitative essay, an open letter, and a “hermit crab” piece. (If you’re curious, you
can read through the assignment sheets for those projects, posted on BbLearn.) Because of

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this, you’ll want a topic that meets two criteria: a) it’s something that you’re very interested in
exploring deeply; b) it’s flexible enough to be talked about in professional, public, and personal
contexts. We will also have individual conferences to talk about your topic ideas before the
assignment is due.
Your proposal should contain the following elements:
a. A statement about what general topic you plan to explore (“I want to spend the
semester exploring X”).
b. Answers to the following questions:
 Why is this topic personally significant? You could talk about your history and
background with the topic, what role it has in your current life, and what it
means to you.
 What groups might be professionally invested or interested in the topic? (for
instance, in the case of Ehrenreich’s essay on breast cancer culture, it might
include health professionals, corporate PR reps, heads of nonprofit groups, etc.)
 Why and how is this topic publicly or politically significant? What social concerns
does it intersect with?
2. An annotated bibliography (12-15 sources). This will give you a jump-start on your first
assignment, in which you’ll be identifying and solving a problem for a specific professional
audience. Thus, your bibliography should include substantive sources (news stories, opinion
pieces, academic journal articles, policy reports, etc.) on your topic. General things like fact
sheets, Wikipedia entries, “About X” statements, etc. do not count as sources. Bibliography
entries should include the following:
 The complete citation in MLA format (the website Citation Machine can help you
with this, though hits on the University library site will also give you the citation
formatted however you like).
 A brief summary or overview of the source, using this format (filling in the italicized
prompts): "In this article, [the author] argues/comments/discusses/writes that [main
point/purpose of piece]. What I find most interesting in this source is [whatever you
find most interesting or useful].”
 Keywords that categorize the source by theme, or question.
At least five of these must be scholarly (academic, peer reviewed) sources. You will highlight
these in the proposal (like this).
Grading Criteria
The assignment is worth 50 points. I will only accept the proposal if it contains all of the
elements above – if it doesn’t, I’ll ask you to revise and resubmit until it does (and you will lose
25 points automatically). If it does contain all of the above elements, it will be graded on the
following scale:

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A (45-50 points): The proposal contains all of the elements above; it provides a very compelling
statement of both the personal and the social significance of the topic. It is well organized,
stylistically strong, and free of mechanical errors. The sources show evidence of good research,
and set the writer up very well for the rest of the semester’s assignments.
B (40-44 points): The proposal contains all of the elements above; it provides a somewhat
compelling statement of both the personal, but the social significance of the topic, though one
of these may be lacking. It is fairly well organized, stylistically adequate, and has few
mechanical errors. The sources show evidence of adequate research, and set the writer up for
the rest of the semester’s assignments.
C (35-39 points): The proposal contains all of the elements above; but the statement about the
personal and social significance of the topic isn’t persuasive enough. The proposal lacks
somewhat in organization, and has more than a few stylistic issues and mechanical errors. The
sources show a lack of adequate research, perhaps too much reliance on Web sources.
(Anything below C is not acceptable.)