Sewell – Troy Terms; 2022 Annotation Rubric

Grading Criteria (turn over)

Criterion

90 to 100 pts

There is clear time- investment in the work. No summarizing is present (outside of an allowable, quick, necessary, point).

The student focuses on the author’s (or multiple authors’) crafting of the piece.

The student has clearly read the selected work; the student responds to and writes intuitively and analytically on the selected material.

Selected quotation(s) are appropriately MLA in-text cited, and are less than 20% of the paper’s main body word-count (allowed to maintain academic integrity.

80 to 89 pts

There is relatively good time-investment, and minimal summarizing.

Student keeps the quoted material in general range of academic integrity standards, but needs to make sure they cite material consistently, and proofread for grammar and mechanics.

Student is picking up on intuitively digging into the work, and is learning to explore the reading with deeper, emotional thought, an

70 to 79 pts

Time-investment needs better management.

Student drifts too far from the literature, or simply supplies an informational biography, or summarizes.

An attempt is made at writing analytically or intuitively, but the student is struggling to maintain appropriate grammar and mechanics (sentence structure, punctuation, syntax, or understanding

60-69 pts

There is clearly little time- investment and/or care.

Student is struggling to understand the concept of annotation writing, and is making a below- average attempt at the work; student severely summarizes, and/or may have major issues with academic integrity violations (plagiarism).

0-59 pts

Time-investment is non-existent; work is severely below standard, severely plagiarized, thus lacking any academic integrity standards,

or

Work is not submitted.

There are minimal-to- no borrowed words/

paraphrases or outside opinions in the work. The student wastes no time with biographies or book-reporting oversimplification.

analytical/

literary thought.

literary thought.

The piece loses focus; it may have some academic integrity issues. The content for the assignment problematic, and/or struggles to follow the annotation protocols.

Total Points: 100

Sewell Annotation Requirements/Protocols Rev. F2020

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The Annotation: Troy Term ENG 2205 & 2206

G.F.Sewell

Your Annotations must run from 350 to 450 words (DO NOT go beyond 500 words, total), single-spaced, 12-point font, Courier New, and reflect a close-read analysis and/or craft analysis of one or two reading list selections per week.

This is a practice in very tight writing:

Avoid repetition, and be precise with your language. Don’t Forget: As stated above, annotations are all about the “craft” of the author: the word selections, syntax (word order), as well as mechanics like punctuation, paragraph breaks, and even page layout, especially if you are dealing with poetry.

TAKE SERIOUS NOTE:

You WON’T EVER use Annotations to tell your reader what a story is about, OR what it “explains” through some sort of “summarizing”. NO! Annotations don't function in that manner. What you'll be doing is taking apart select areas of the reading, and explaining the deeper meaning of certain phrases, words, historical social aspects, use of particular characters, and other critical analysis points. You will peel apart what you read, the way one 'peels apart' an onion. Let’s reiterate below:

In any select reading, you are choosing a line, sentence, paragraph, or other various sets of words, to focus on the craft of the author. You want to be very particular about your focus.

Remember, focus on your writing is what keeps it tight, to the point.

DO NOT start off your writing with some sort of expository about life and meaning. Just jump right into the selection, starting with a quick couple of thesis sentences, or short paragraph, then jump into the interpretation of the author’s craft, and don’t forget to round your ideas back to the piece you read–and to the exact lines or words of your focus. In other words, make sure you’ve read quite enough of the work to

Sewell Annotation Requirements/Protocols Rev. F2020

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even begin creating an annotation.

Please use appropriate paragraph breaks: DO NOT BLOCK-WRITE. I WILL NOT read BLOCK WRITING.

Make sure the lines you choose have an effect on you, as a reader, personally. Annotations come from the point of view of the reader, thus are the only writing style that fairly allows for the use of the “I” pronoun, during this course.

You are coming from the point of view of your own personal experiences in life, your own reading, your own ideas, but in a critical review sense. The close reading has to be meaningful.

You want the person reading your Annotation to feel as if s/he might understand the reading better by reviewing your ideas about said text. Remember, I’m not so much invested in your ‘opinion’ as I am your analysis.

You ARE NOT required to go outside of the text to write your annotation. If you feel the need to require secondary sources, you MUST use MLA Citation style, to include in-text citation, and the full bibliography (Citations/Works Cited) those in-text a lead to.

You learned MLA Citation skills in ENG 1101-1102. Resource links are at the bottom of the Modules area. Avail yourself of such resources, if needed.

Turnitin.com will be automatically used to scan the integrity of all annotations. If you use secondary sources (viable support sources outside of your text), you MUST NOT use more than 20% of the words or works of others.

REMINDER: Beyond the use of page number in-text citations–ie (237)–for marking the pages/lines you are referring to, you DO NOT need to go outside the literature to annotate (analyze) it. If you do not use secondary sources, you do not need to have a bibliography at the bottom of your work. Just be mindful to make the analysis entirely your own.