Overview: one of the biggest distinctions between opinion-based writing and aca

Overview:One of the biggest distinctions between opinion-based writing and academic writingis that academic writing needs to happen from a position of informed analysis.

 In thisassignment, students need to justify to readers that the information that will be presented in thepaper is well-considered and the results of serious inquiry.

Assignment:As always, begin with research. In this case, students should find at least sixsources on the proposed topic for the research paper and sort them into three groups—sourcesthat provide quality analysis, sources that are valuable as general references, and sources thatcontain flaws or lack gravity.

 Then, for each source, provide a brief summary (100-150 words),followed by a brief evaluation (100-150 words) of the source, and an identification of whichcategory it is in and a justification for why it is in that category (~100 words).

 There is no need tobalance the sources (i.e. you don’t have to have 2 per group), but each group must berepresented with at least one entry.

The assignment will take the form of an opening paragraph (~100 words) introducing the topicand the likely stance taken by the paper. This will be followed by an annotated bibliography, witheach source being an entry followed by the summary and assessment.Things to consider:

Remember that you will be graded based on the quality of the sources you find and onyour ability to assess those sources neutrally.

You may use these sources for your next paper or for the research paper, so you mightwant to choose your topic carefully.Grading:

The primary aspect of the targeted grade will be based on the quality of the annotations;this includes the accuracy of the summaries.

Another major aspect of the targeted grade will be based on how well the studentjustifies the categorization of the sources.