Technopoly by Neil Postman

Critical Annotated BibliographyAn annotated bibliography sums up the content of a source, providing an overview of the arguments, methodology, and evidence used in the work. A critical annotated bibliography summarizes and evaluates a source, noting bias, objective, and use of evidence. In addition, a critical annotated bibliography may show how the source research may or may not be useful in a writer’s research and/or in a particular field of study.

In this assignment you will write a critical annotated bibliography of at least 12 references.  You will list them in alphabetical order in APA format.  In addition, each reference will be followed by a short analytical summary of 150-200 words.  At the end of the short summary, you will include a sentence or two that critically analyzes the source and that mentions distinctive features about the article and why it may or may not be useful for you in writing a literature review.

 

WRTG 391

Assignment #2: The Critical Annotated Bibliography

Writing Assignment #2 will be a critical annotated bibliography of 12 sources.

Courses that fulfill the General Education Requirements (GERs) at UMUC all have a common theme—technological transformations. In following this theme this semester in WRTG

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1, we have examined the analysis of one author, Neil Postman, on the impact of technology on society. In this annotated bibliography, you will continue this theme.

In this assignment you will write a list of at least 12 references in alphabetical order in APA format. In addition, each reference will be followed by a short analytical summary of 1

5

0-

20

0 words.
At the end of the short summary, you will include a sentence or two that critically analyzes the source and that mentions distinctive features about the article and why it may or may not be useful for you in writing a literature review.

Please choose
one
of the following five topics on which to write your annotated bibliography:

1. The impact of the Internet on information literacy and library skills.

In collecting your sources, you may want to draw upon what Neil Postman says about technology and information in Technopoly, especially in chapters 4 and 5. A particular section of the Postman book can be one of your sources.

You might focus on one or more of the following as you gather your sources. These are just examples. Many approaches are possible for this topic.

a. The impact of the Internet on plagiarism in student papers.

b. The impact of the Internet on research methods among students.

c. The impact of Wikipedia and other web 2.0 applications on the use of information.

2. The impact of technology on the health care field.

In collecting your sources, you may want to draw upon what Neil Postman says about technology and medicine in Technopoly, especially in chapter 6. A particular section of the Postman book can be one of your sources.

You might focus on one or more of the following as you gather your sources. These are just examples. Many approaches are possible for this topic.

a. The impact of a particular technological development on health care costs.

b. The implications of maintaining a nationwide health care electronic database of every patient’s medical records

3. The impact of assessment and measurement on education.

In collecting your sources, you may want to draw upon what Neil Postman says about measurement and the use of “invisible technologies” in Technopoly, especially in chapter 8. A particular section of the Postman book can be one of your sources.

You might focus on one or more of the following as you gather your sources. These are just examples. Many approaches are possible for this topic.

a. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and the use of measurement in its assessments.

b. The use of placement exams for entrance into colleges and universities.

c. The use of placement exams for enrollment into entry-level writing and mathematics courses in colleges and universities.

4. Various views of science in our society.

In collecting your sources, you may want to draw upon what Neil Postman says about the science in Technopoly, especially in chapter 9. A particular section of the Postman book can be one of your sources.

You might focus on one or more of the following as you gather your sources. These are just examples. Many approaches are possible for this topic.

a. Is psychology a science?

b. Is sociology a science?

c. The nature of science and of scientific inquiry in a particular hard science field

5. The impact of technology on a field of study or topic of your choice.

This option represents a more general approach to the assignment. You may or may not find that the Postman book is helpful for this choice. Chapter 7 might be an especially helpful section of the book if you do. A particular section of the Postman book can be one of your sources.

You might focus on one or more of the following as you gather your sources. These are just examples. Many approaches are possible for this topic.

a. The impact of mobile devices on cybersecurity

b. The impact of the Internet on the field of advertising

c. The impact of cloud computing on a particular business field

d. The impact of the Internet in an area of communication studies

e. The impact of the Internet on global marketing strategies

f. The impact of a particular type of technology on health care

g. The impact of technology on education in a particular field of study

This will be an analytical/critical annotated bibliography. The difference between the descriptive/informative annotated bibliography and the analytical/critical annotated bibliography was given in the video by UMUC. In case you want to revisit that link, the video is at

http://www.umuc.edu/library/tutorials/bibliography/bibliography.shtml

and the transcript is at

http://www.umuc.edu/library/tutorials/bibliography/bibliography-text.shtml

.

The following are some links to sample Annotated Bibliographies. Some of them give examples in APA format. You may want to observe these examples and perhaps model your work after them.

· A variety of samples from

The University of North Carolina Writing Center

, including these specific

examples of APA-style annotations

.

· A sample from

California Polytechnic.

· A couple of samples from

Cornell University

. The website also provides more information on the process of writing an annotated bibliography.

· A sample which, you may notice, is not in APA format but which shows the correct way to annotate from

UNC at Asheville

. Please follow the model annotation but not the model citation here.

· Some samples from

The University of Maryland College Park

. Again, this sample follows MLA style. Please follow the model annotation but not the model citation here.)

The following is a suggested rubric

Rubric for annotated bibliography

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5

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12 sources follow one of the themes listed above				20
12 sources are listed in alphabetical order by last name		5
Sources are scholarly or appropriate
Summaries are thorough
Evaluative sentences are clear and effective
Grammar and mechanics are accurate
APA format is used	10
Total	100

�This is critical, because it will help you make sense of all the research material you have gathered when you set out to write the literature review.