Writing Assignment: Annotated Bibliography (AB) Due Dates (by 11:59PM): Rubin AB entry: 1/30 AB Draft (3 entries): 2/25 OPTIONAL: AB Final Draft (5 entries): 3/ 10 AB Revised Draft: 3/17 Mechanics: 6 page minimum (including 5 AB entries and a Literature Review with CRQ), double-spaced, 12 point, 1” margins, MLA (or other) format Explanation Annotated Bibliography is a genre of writing in academia that works to show your awareness of what others have written about a topic. The work done in an AB, including introducing the authors with brief intellectual biographies; explicating the main claims and concepts; tracing the argument and its evidence; evaluating the source; and discussing its stakes and implications gives some context to the course reading you choose to research and situates the course reading into a research topic by indicating the intellectual conversations you are entering. The point of this assignment is to practice research skills but also to dig a little deeper into 4 of our readings using research. For this assignment:Writing Task 1. Compile an Annotated Bibliographyof five scholarly sources, including one entry for Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex” and 4 more scholarly sources based on researching sources that are connected to one (the deep dive) or more of our course readings. See the next page for the specific AB entry format. · Sources · “Scholarly” means peer-reviewed articles from academic journals or chapters in books written by experts in a field and not wikis, encyclopedias, newspapers, popular magazines/media, blogs, websites, etc. (see the Library Guide on what constitutes a scholarly source). · “Connected” means that each of your researched, scholarly sources must be connection to a course reading in some way. You can either find a source that engages or discusses the particular critical essay or cultural text from the course calendar or you can do research on a topic or theme that is brought up in or similar to the course reading. Whatever you decide, you’ll explain the connection in your quote analysis. · “Deep Dive” means you may also include more than one researched source per course text. You can, for instance, research two sources on a critical essay and two on a cultural text or even include 4 sources that are all about one essay or text to give some in-depth engagement with one course reading. Alternatively, you may also include 4 sources on 4 different course texts. · Focus · If you’d like, you canfocus your research within a broad topic, on a field of knowledge, or on a really specific object of analysis within that topic. For example, you can produce an AB based on a specific topic (like racialized hypersexuality, the sex/gender/desire matrix, or a particular sexual stereotype) or a specific discipline (for instance, focus on the sociology of sex) or an interdisciplinary one that pursues a critical research question through multiple fields of knowledge (for instance, focused on how sociology, cult.

1. Writing Assignment: Annotated Bibliography (AB)
Due Dates (by 11:59PM):
Rubin AB entry:
1/30
AB Draft
(3 entries):
2/25
OPTIONAL:
AB Final Draft
(5 entries): 3/ 10
AB Revised Draft:
3/17
Mechanics: 6 page minimum (including 5 AB entries and a
Literature Review with CRQ), double-spaced, 12 point, 1”
margins, MLA (or other) format
Explanation
Annotated Bibliography is a genre of writing in academia that
works to show your awareness of what others have written about
a topic. The work done in an AB, including introducing the
authors with brief intellectual biographies; explicating the main
claims and concepts; tracing the argument and its evidence;
evaluating the source; and discussing its stakes and implications
gives some context to the course reading you choose to research
and situates the course reading into a research topic by
indicating the intellectual conversations you are entering. The
point of this assignment is to practice research skills but also to
dig a little deeper into 4 of our readings using research. For this
assignment:Writing Task

2. 1. Compile an Annotated Bibliographyof five scholarly sources,
including one entry for Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex” and 4
more scholarly sources based on researching sources that are
connected to one (the deep dive) or more of our course
readings. See the next page for the specific AB entry format.
· Sources
· “Scholarly” means peer-reviewed articles from academic
journals or chapters in books written by experts in a field and
not wikis, encyclopedias, newspapers, popular
magazines/media, blogs, websites, etc. (see the Library Guide
on what constitutes a scholarly source).
· “Connected” means that each of your researched, scholarly
sources must be connection to a course reading in some way.
You can either find a source that engages or discusses the
particular critical essay or cultural text from the course calendar
or you can do research on a topic or theme that is brought up in
or similar to the course reading. Whatever you decide, you’ll
explain the connection in your quote analysis.
· “Deep Dive” means you may also include more than one
researched source per course text. You can, for instance,
research two sources on a critical essay and two on a cultural
text or even include 4 sources that are all about one essay or
text to give some in-depth engagement with one course reading.
Alternatively, you may also include 4 sources on 4 different
course texts.
· Focus
· If you’d like, you canfocus your research within a broad topic,
on a field of knowledge, or on a really specific object of
analysis within that topic. For example, you can produce an AB
based on a specific topic (like racialized hypersexuality, the
sex/gender/desire matrix, or a particular sexual stereotype) or a
specific discipline (for instance, focus on the sociology of sex)
or an interdisciplinary one that pursues a critical research
question through multiple fields of knowledge (for instance,

3. focused on how sociology, cultural studies, biology,
psychology, etc. engage questions about transphobia and sexual
violence).
· You can also not worry about a focus and research the texts
that interest you and then figure out how to connect them when
you’re done. Good research has been done in both ways.
2. Write a Literature Review paragraph that asks a Critical
Research Question and frames your AB with a discussion of
some connections you see between your sources and our course
readings. Your Literature Review should synthesize the ideas in
your AB entries by discussing some “threads” of connection you
see developing in your research. Part of this review should also
discuss your research’s connection to a class text/concept,
which can be anything but must be articulated by you. Include a
CRQ that indicates the focus of your Annotated Bibliography.
This can be a broad or a more specific question and you can use
or adapt a CRQ from your or another student’s
WAQs.Annotated Bibliography Format
To do a substantial, comprehensive Annotated Bibliography,
follow all of the four steps below closely for each entry.
1. Cite each source.
Begin with the MLA (or other) Works Cited format of your
source at the top of the page.
2. Write a précis that introduces and summarizes each source.
· First, introduce each source with a) the full name of the
author, b) a brief bio, c) the full title and disciplinary framing
of the chapter/essay d) the book/journal that contains it, and e)
the date of publication. Then give a summary of the essay’s
argument as a whole.
· Then, summarize each source by processing the information in
the entire source down into a paragraph that discusses in your
own words and using no quotes the main claim of the

4. essay/article/chapter, any subclaims and/or important concepts,
and the source’s evidence, including the way it uses that
evidence to support its argument. To do this well, read the
source carefully both 1) conceptually for meaning to understand
its main intervention/claim and to discuss a few of the main
point(s), and 2) rhetorically to trace the argument briefly by
discussing how the main points are made and how the article
progresses using its evidence.
· Analyze one quote from each source that engages our course
essay or text in some way or analyze one quote to explain how
it relates or connects to our course readings or topics.
3. Evaluate each source
Then evaluate each source’s credibility by using the Library
Guides: Evaluating Sources page (link on Canvas) to discuss the
source’s:
· Currency: When was it published? Has it been
revised/discounted by then?
· Relevance: For what topics might this essay be useful? Be
specific in naming 1-2 possibilities. What ways of thinking does
it offer? Who is the audience? What is its scope - how much
information or history is it trying to cover?
· Authority: Is it scholarly (by an expert in the field, in a peer-
reviewed journal, with a bibliography)? Who is the author (give
a brief bio)? What are the author’s credentials? Who is the
publisher?
· Accuracy: What is the evidence given? Does it have enough
evidence to make its case and is the evidence handled well? Are
there unsupported claims or misuse of evidence?
· Purpose:Why was it written? What are its intervention (and
into what disciplines/fields)? Is there bias (this means obvious
agenda, not just a focus on one claim/argument)? What kinds of
biases are apparent? Is it objective? Is it an opinion or a

5. reasoned argument?
4. Discuss the stakes and implications of each source
Finally, end each entry by discussing the stakes of each source
and elaborate on its particular implications for your research
question. Discuss the stakes by articulating why this source is
important and for whom. Why is this essay/concept important?
What new ideas are offered? What disciplines or areas of study
might use this essay? Who might this essay/concept be helping?
Discuss the implications by offering some thoughts and a
specific example or two of how this essay or a particular
concept or interpretation in it are useful. How can you use this
essay/concept to think about sex, sexuality, race, gender, etc. in
America? How can you use the new ways of thinking it offers to
convince people of how sexuality is a form of racial and/or
gendered power?
Fair Warning: Annotated Bibliographies are always more work
than they seem because you need to take some time to find
relevant sources, process the information in them, and then
write the précis and evaluation.
Your Name
Response #1
Name of the Reading (Jonas Lerman, Big Data and Its
Exclusions. In Stanford Law Review 66 (September 2013), pp.
55-63)
Start your reading response here
Technology, Ethics, and Global Society
Reading Response Assignments

6. What is a Reading Response?1
A Reading Response is not a summary of your reading. A
Reading Response is a way of writing
about your thinking about the reading, or your reaction(s) to a
reading. A Reading Response is not a
formal paper, but should be well thought-out, fully developed,
and carefully written, nevertheless. It
should demonstrate not only that you have carefully read the
text (more than one time), but also
that you have thought carefully about the text and engaged with
it in some way.
An effective Reading Response will demonstrate that you have
thoroughly read and understood the
reading, including smaller sections of it, or that you ask
questions that reveal careful reading. It
might develop connections between the reading and the themes
of the course or discussions we’ve
had in class and demonstrate that you have considered the
implications of the readings. It may
suggest questions for class discussion.
A Reading Response must provide evidence that you have
engaged with a reading on your own
terms and related it to things outside the reading. This might
include some of the following:
• Providing a detailed example of some element of the reading.
This would need to relate the
example to the reading in a specific way that provides some
insight.
• Relating one reading to another. This would need to get into
the specifics of the two readings
and bring them together in a way that is not obvious.

7. • Relating the reading to your own experience. This would need
to include a substantial
connection between particular elements of the reading and
specific elements of your
experience.
• Challenging a reading or going beyond the author's point of
view to raise new questions or
draw new insights.
Be specific about the work you’re discussing, provide details
from the text to back up any assertions
you may make by quoting directly from the text.
Finally, pay attention to
• the development of ideas (organization, clear reasoning, use of
key vocabulary) and
• conventions of writing (clear presentation, grammar,
mechanics,2 avoiding usage errors3).
1 This section is adapted from
https://www.azwestern.edu/sites/default/files/ENG%20170%20
Reading%20Response%20Assignment.pdf
and
https://bostoncollege.instructure.com/courses/1420983/pages/re
ading-response-grading-rubric
2 Mechanics refers to rules of the written language, such as
punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
3 See some examples of common usage errors here:
https://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/language/english-

8. usage-errors.htm
https://www.azwestern.edu/sites/default/files/ENG%20170%20
Reading%20Response%20Assignment.pdf
https://bostoncollege.instructure.com/courses/1420983/pages/re
ading-response-grading-rubric
https://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/language/english-usage-
errors.htm
https://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/language/english-usage-
errors.htm
Some Questions to Consider in a Reading Response
Try to think about just a few of these questions; a successful
Reading Response will consider a few
issues in depth rather than attempt to answer each one of these
questions.
• How does the reading relate to the content of the course and
previous readings or class
discussions?
• How does the reading relate to your own experience?
• How did you feel about what you read, and why do you think
the text provoked this
response in you?
• Did the reading reflect or challenge your own values and
assumptions, and how so?
• What questions would you ask the author(s) or propose for
class discussion? What are
some possible answers that you can offer to these questions?
Format and Length
Please use the template provided in Canvas → Files → Reading

9. Responses → “Reading Response
Template.docx”. In the template file, replace the text in bold,
italic font with the appropriate
information.
Each response (not including the header) should be 500-1000
words long (a minimum of two, full,
typewritten, double-spaced pages). Make sure not to go over the
1000 word maximum.
Grading
For each Reading Response, you can earn a maximum of 40
points. If there is no submission, you
will get 0 points for the Reading Response.
Each Reading Response counts for 5% of your final grade in
this course.
Grading Rubric4
Criterion 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Content
Understanding of the text

10. Accurately
demonstrated in
the student
response, with
higher level
Accurately
demonstrated in the
student response
Partially
demonstrated in
the student
response

11. Not demonstrated
in the student
response
Specific text-based examples and citations to
support the reader’s examples/position
Relating the reading to personal experience
Including the reader’s own position, opinion,
question, or proposal
Organization
Effective application of key vocabulary
Clear reasoning
Logical organization
Conventions
of Writing
Clear presentation, staying on topic
Command of grammar, mechanics, usage
Compliance to formatting requirements
4 Adapted from:

12. https://www.mtoliveboe.org/cmsAdmin/uploads/reading-
response-rubric.pdf
https://www.mtoliveboe.org/cmsAdmin/uploads/reading-
response-rubric.pdfTechnology, Ethics, and Global
SocietyReading Response AssignmentsWhat is a Reading
Response?0FSome Questions to Consider in a Reading
ResponseFormat and LengthGradingGrading Rubric3F