Today in class, you will conduct a short personal interview that will serve as one of the sources for your annotated bibliography. An overview of the assignment and the directions are included below.
Overview
For practice in conducting an interview as well as providing a peer perspective for your research project, today you will interview a classmate whose conversation with you will serve as one of the five sources in your bibliography.
If you decide that you do not want to use the interview that you conduct today, you are welcome to include another one in your project. Keep in mind, however, that the interview you include in your project must be conducted with a student currently enrolled in section one or eight, and the subject of the interview must be the subject of your project.
Questions to ask your interviewee include the following:
- What experience, if any, did you have with the subject (the reading or the aspect of the course) before you encountered it in English 1103?
- Has it changed your perspective on reading and/or writing? If so, how?
- Will you continue to pursue the subject (read more work by the author, continue the classroom practice or activity) after the conclusion of the semester?
You are welcome to limit your interview to the questions above, or you may add one or two follow-up questions during class. If you would like to continue your interview later and ask additional questions, plan to meet with the interviewee again, face to face or virtually.
Directions
- Compose an MLA-style bibliographic entry following the format below. See the model on the handout labeled Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry: Peer Interview.
Last Name, First Name. Interview. Conducted by Your First Name Your Last Name. Day + Month + Year.
- Next, compose a short, one-paragraph summary of the interview that includes a sentence in which you introduce a quotation from the interview with a signal phrase, such as, According to . . . , or [first and last name] notes or observes or points out that . . . .” Your quotation will not be followed by a parenthetical citation because it is a form of oral communication (without page or paragraph numbers).
- Follow your summary with a short paragraph of commentary or analysis. Keep in mind that at this point you may not know how the interview will figure in your research. You may mention it briefly, or you may link it to one or more of your other sources. For your draft today, you may simply write that the interview provides a peer perspective on the subject, and specify the subject.
- Follow your commentary with a short paragraph that identifies the student by class and major, and notes that he or she is currently enrolled in English 1103, section one or eight, at High Point University.
Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry: Peer Interview
Brewer, Jesse. Interview. Conducted by Jane Lucas. 20 Oct. 2023.
English 1103 student Jesse Brewer recounts how he has played Scrabble for most of his life. Since he was a young child, he has played the game with his grandparents whenever he visited their home in Pennsylvania. Brewer will continue to play Scrabble after the end of the semester because the game remains a tradition in his family. In his words, “[M]y grandmother is still going to want to play it every summer.” Brewer also notes that the game has expanded his vocabulary, saying it has “introduced me to new words, which allows me to read and write more capably in everyday life.”
Brewer’s remarks on vocabulary building highlight the game’s verbal benefits, and his observations on Scrabble as a family tradition serve as a point of contrast to that of some other students’–such as Ava Salvant’s–who had not played Scrabble before playing it as a weekly exercise in English 1103.
Brewer is a freshman computer science major at High Point University, where he is enrolled in English 1103, section 20.
*Note that the bibliographic entries in your MS Word file or PDF should have hanging indents, and the first line of each paragraph should be indented five spaces or one-half inch.
After Completing the Interview Worksheet
After you have drafted your annotated bibliography entry, proofread and edit as needed. When you have completed your editing, submit your assignment. Once you have given it to me, you may devote the remainder of your class time today to additional work on your research project.
Want More Class Time for Research and Writing?
You will have portions of the class periods on Monday, November 9, Wednesday, November 11, and Monday, November 16 to devote to research and writing. If you would like additional class time, you may request an alternate assignment for Friday, November 6. To request and complete that alternate assignment, follow the steps below.
- Email your request to complete the alternate assignment no later than 4 p.m. on Thursday, November 5. You will not be permitted to work on your research project in lieu of participating in Wordplay Day unless you submit your request before the deadline.
- Devote the class period to one or more research and/or writing tasks.
- In the last few minutes of class, complete the short-answer worksheet (you will receive in class) that asks you to summarize the task, or tasks, that have been the focus of your work.
- Submit your worksheet at the end of class.
Your worksheet will serve as your short assignment grade for Friday, November 6, in place of your Scrabble assignment. You may have a similar option for Friday, November 13. If so, instructions will be included in upcoming class notes.
Writing Center
As you continue to reserach and write, consider visiting the Writing Center. If you do so, you will earn five bonus points for your annotated bibliography and preface assignment.
To schedule an appointment, sign up online or scan the QR code below. To earn bonus points for your assignment, consult a Writing Center tutor no later than Thursday, November 19. The due date for posting the assignment to Blackboard and to your WordPress blog is Wednesday, November 18 (before class); the hard deadline is Friday, November 20 (before class).
Writing Center Statistics
Section One
- Literacy Narrative: 3 of 18 students, 16%
- Analysis: 3 of 18 students, 16%
Section Eight
- Literacy Narrative: 3 of 18 students, 16%
- Analysis: 2 of 18 students, 11%
If you are one of the students who has not taken advantage of the opportunity to earn bonus points for meeting with a Writing Center consultant, please don’t miss your last opportunity to do so.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
