Research Review (30%)
Course: English 1111 / Instructor: Will Dawkins / william.dawkins@minneapolis.edu
Rough Draft Timeline: Week of June 22-26 for Revision and Possible Peer Review
Final Draft Due: Thursday, July 2 at 12:00 p.m. via D2L OR by E-mail Attachment to Me
As is stated on your syllabus, for this assignment you will write a Research Review which asks you to list (the publication information for—author’s first and last name, title of the source, date of publication), summarize, and evaluate three legitimate academic sources—articles, essays, books, etc—which focus either on James M. Cain’s novel, Double Indemnity (1936), or on some issue relevant and related to our course theme of noir fiction. After listing, summarizing, and evaluating each source, you will include for each source a few (at least three) questions for further consideration and investigation—in other words, questions that you are left with after reading and analyzing the source. This assignment is designed to introduce you to the processes of locating valuable sources; of summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting what other authors are saying; of evaluating the credibility and claims of those authors; and of determining questions that you have based on your reading of each source. As important as all of these, the assignment also offers an opportunity to educate yourself about the noir genre. In terms of length for this assignment, listing each source will take up only a line or two. The summary portion for each source should consist of a paragraph (four to six sentences, roughly), and your evaluation of each source should consist of at least three paragraphs, providing more detail than the summary. In evaluating each source (in those paragraphs after your brief summary), you’ll assess the strengths and weaknesses of the source, considering what the author does effectively and ineffectively, and/or aspects of the writing that the author could improve. This assignment should amount to roughly five or six pages. Any questions? Just let me know.
Grading for the Assignment
Format/Organization—30 points
- Do you research the required number of sources (3+)?
- Do you list, summarize, and evaluate each source in the order that I have specified above and that I have explained and demonstrated in class?
Content—50 points
- Is each source that you have researched a legitimate academic source?
- Are you thorough and specific in your summary and your evaluation of each source?
- Do you list relevant questions that the source forces you to consider and/or that you believe the source should raise but fails to?
MLA Format/Grammar/Mechanics—20 points
- Is your Research Review grammatically clean, especially with regards to spelling, subject-verb agreement, fragments, run-ons, diction, and punctuation?
- Are your sentences clear and lacking in awkwardness?
- Do you adhere to MLA format guidelines?