Assignment: Members of English 444-2 will collect an online annotated bibliography of recent (since 1990) scholarly articles on Milton's works. You will contribute ONE entry to this project. Each entry should complete four critical writing tasks: summary (of the article's argument and main points), analysis (of the effectiveness and logic of the argument), evaluation (of the reliability of the author and argument), and synthesis (of the article with other arguments, articles, or books). Here is an example of such a report from a 200-level class. While this is an excellent report, I will, of course, expect your 400-level report to be more fully developed. Your finished annotated bibliography entry should be 400-600 words. It  is due Tuesday, October 3.

Method: Find a recent article using the MLA Bibliography or Humanities Abstracts. Rather than simply searching under the keyword "Milton," which will bring up a thousand or more articles, consider limiting your search in terms of a specific work (for example "Lycidas") or a topic (like "Milton and gender" or "Milton and books"). Either limit your search by date (that is, 1990-2000) or check carefully to make sure the article was published since 1990. Print out or xerox the article (which you will turn in when you post your assignment).

Read the article critically. Write your entry on the article, making sure that you complete the four writing tasks. (You may divide your entry into 4 parts with those subheads, if you like.) Put a complete bibliographic citation of the article at the top of the page, following MLA or Chicago (Turabian) style. Email your entry to kari@u.arizona.edu, either as copied text or as an attachment in Word or WordPerfect. Here are instructions how to copy and paste a document into email. If you need help with this task, make an appointment with me well ahead of the assignment due date, or ask for help in a computer lab. I will then put your entry online in our Milton Bibliography.

Purpose: Writing your contribution to the class bibliography will sharpen the research skills you will need for the Term Paper as well as your critical reading and writing skills. You will also be contributing to a project that will be of use to all class members.

Evaluation: Your entry will be evaluated on the effectiveness of your summary, analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of the resource; argumentation; organization; and usage and mechanics. Assignments that arrive at all late will be penalized substantially. The Annotated bibliography Entry is worth 10% of your grade.