Writing Assignments

Expectations and Requirements

The RID Code of Professional Conduct encourages interpreters to engage in professional development, including familiarity and reading of current literature in the field. Interpreters must not only understand the communication needs of Deaf people but also the core issues that face the field today. Annotated bibliographies provide you with opportunities to research and compile lists of academic texts for your own continued study.

Annotated bibliographies are simply an organized list of sources (books, journals, newspapers, magazines, Web pages, etc.,) with an annotation or description of each source, and are written to be informative, indicative, evaluative, or all three.

Evaluation Criteria

Please note: The points breakdown below isn’t just an arbitrary explanation of requirements; you’ll be held to these scoring standards. If you want to earn a 75 on a bibliography, you really need to show it.

FAQs

Every semester, students say or ask:

“There aren’t enough books or references.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. UVU and hundreds of other libraries, through the intercollegiate library sharing programs that are in place, make the world a very small place when it comes to finding obscure references. This is not supposed to be an easy assignment; you’re going to have to dig for some of these references.

“I’ve looked everywhere, but there just aren’t enough references about sign language on my topic.”

The assignment doesn’t say every reference or source has to be about “American” and/or “sign language,” just the majority of them. There are thousands of invaluable references in related fields or topics; for example, if you were compiling sources about interpreting in legal settings, other indispensable references might be about spoken language interpreters working in the courtroom or the effect of “lawyer speak” on defendants; your research on interpreting models may benefit from sources on the psycho/sociological effects of processing English as a second language. Don’t feel you must — in fact, don’t — limit yourself to Deafness and signed language only.

“There really aren’t very many books or articles on my topic, so I just used internet links, okay?”

While you may find many good materials on the internet, you're also going to run into “articles” written by students just like you. These aren’t rigorous, peer-reviewed, substantiated (or even graded!) data that are good content for your bibliographies. Make sure your compilations are a good mix of academic articles, books or book chapters, and, where appropriate, other related references like newspapers and internet articles. Caveat lector: Beware the blog posting and make sure the reference is citable; “on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

If you find a book via an internet link (e.g. Google Books or archive.org), don’t use the link (e.g. http://books.google.com/books?id=kNvGuljM99wC) as your bibliography reference, use the actual resource itself (Nomeland, M. M. & Nomeland, R. E. (2012). The deaf community in America: History in the making. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

“This is all I could find. Even though it doesn’t fill up the whole two pages, is it okay?”

Put it this way: partially completing the assignment will earn you partial credit. As stated in the syllabus, you’ll be graded on your own merits. You decide what you can live with.

“I didn’t understand how to reference everything so I just did it my way. Is that okay?”

No. A large part of doing research is properly documenting your findings. To make this easier, there are standards in place; use the APA referencing and works cited style — standard for writing about the social sciences and humanities — and stick with it. Be consistent. Determine how APA style typographically treats and references various types of sources. Listed at right are Internet sources which explain how to document your findings.

Annotated Bibliography Topic(s)

Check class schedule for due dates.

Choose an interpreting-related principle or concept that either interests you (read: “I’d like to know more about this...”) or something that has come up over the course of the semester.

Specifications

Tip Make life easy; start with one of these templates:

• Microsoft Word .doc template
• OpenOffice .odt template
• Apple Pages .pages template

Your bibliographies must:

• use APA formatting and style (Internet sources are listed below)
• be typewritten (handwritten papers will not be accepted). (Spring 2012: We’re actually going to try and submit them via Canvas this semester; your cooperation will be helpful.)
• be spellchecked (both electronically and manually checked)
• be single-spaced using only one-inch margins (not 1.25" or 1.5"; and, after the first reference line, indent .5" (see sample in syllabus)
• use 12 pt type (not 13 or 14 pt)
• be at least two full pages in length (longer is perfectly acceptable) and stapled together (no ‘dog-ears’)
• include a reference to your last name and page number in the upper right corner; no title page please
• utilize college-level thought, reasoning, research, and writing
• compile as many sources as will fit on the two pages; each annotation should be approximately five to six lines in length (you may not use previous ASL class texts nor more than one Internet reference)

Content

Common problems:

• Avoid analysis that is obvious and superficial, rather than original, personal, and in-depth. Relate your feelings and reactions in an academic way; statements like “I think this article is just so cool” or “This lady’s Web site is just awesome!” are filler and do not represent a true, academic perspective.
• Use credible, factual sources. Books, journals, and periodicals are among the most reliable references. While the Internet is easy to search and may contain a number of seemingly good articles or sources, beware the anonymity and undocumented nature of the Internet.

Internet Resources

Tip View a sample annotated bibliography for comparison.

Writing an Annotated bibliography:

• http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/annotated-bibliography
• http://www.utoledo.edu/library/help/guides/docs/annotations.pdf
• http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/AnnotatedBibliography.html
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_annotatedbib.html

APA citation styles:

• http://library.nmu.edu/guides/userguides/style_apa.htm
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
• http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/apa01.html

Mechanics

Having trouble with putting words and sentences together? The Hemingway Editor is a solid helpful tool. Here are some fairly common problems to watch for in your paper:

1. Awkward sentence structures. Avoid fragments and run-on sentences. “The Hartford school helped refine ASL. And standardize it too.” is a fragment.
2. Incorrect punctuation. Don’t misuse commas and semicolons. Semicolons only link two related—but independent—sentences together.
3. Incorrect use of it’s. It’s = It is (“It is a tragedy.”); its = belonging to ‘it’ (“Its process was way off.”)
4. Incorrect use of quotation marks and italics. Book, play, poem, periodical, film/TV titles should be italicized, not in quotation marks.

Here’s some additional help with writing concerns and mechanics. Mind the HTML assistance; the principles are still applicable.

I’m very willing to clarify any of these potential problems or concerns for you. If you want to discuss a rough draft with me, I would be more than happy to help.