Anthology Preface and Table of Contents

Due Dates

11/19: Draft due (for peer review workshop)
11/24: First Submission due
12/12: Second Submission due

Each submission of this paper counts for 12.5% of your grade (for a total of 25% of your grade). When I grade the second submission of this paper, I will consider whether you have significantly revised the paper, and you can receive a lower grade on the second submission if there is no evidence of significant revisions.

Throughout the semester you have been researching a topic, examining works that might serve as chapters in your anthology, and considering the purpose and audience of your anthology. Now is your chance to pull it all together by composing the preface to your book. Your preface should be 2000-2500 words long. You will also compose a table of contents for your book. The preface will serve to introduce readers to your text, map out the various arguments your text includes, explain how these arguments clash or overlap, and explain the purpose of the book.

Your anthology must contain at least eight (8) pieces from other authors (that is, your book must have at least eight chapters). Those pieces must come from the Detroit Anthologics database. If you would like to use sources that are not in the database, you must have them approved by me no later than 11/17.

As you write the preface, think about the issues we have considered all semester long:

* Who is the audience for your anthology? Is it geared toward a particular discipline, or is it an interdisciplinary project? Why?

* What is the purpose of your book? This is where you might include some personal experiences. Why did you choose to pursue this topic? What do you hope others gain from reading your anthology? What drove you to do this research?

* Why did you choose to include the pieces that appear in the book? You could have chosen any number of scholarly articles or book chapters, but you chose these. Why? Defend your choices, and be specific.

* Who are the authors and what qualifies them to speak on this issue? This does not mean telling us about the scholarly degrees each of your contributors has. Since this is a scholarly anthology, most of your contributors will have PhD's. Instead, you should be much more specific. What qualifies this scholar to speak to this particular topic? What makes them an expert on it? You could mention their previous publications or any other information that explains why this author is qualified to speak on this topic.

* What are the various overlaps and collisions that happen between the texts you have brought together in this anthology? We have learned many ways to analyze arguments, and your task is to make sense of the pieces you've chosen by using the tools of rhetorical analysis. In addition to this analysis, you'll need to synthesize these arguments. We've practiced creating synthesis trees to group similar arguments together, and you need to synthesize and group the arguments you've chosen.

* What is the state of the debate? Chapter 15 of Having Your Say explains how to make a "state of the debate" argument, and this is what you'll be doing in your preface. Have you explained the patterns or gaps in the debate you're discussing? Have you looked from arguments or ideas that can be grouped together? Have you identified arguments or ideas that have been overlooked by those taking part in the conversation you've constructed?

* How is your book organized? Why? Each chapter of your book will consist of an author's work (and nothing else), but you can group these chapters into sections. This will help your reader make sense of the various arguments you've compiled in your anthology. You will be creating a table of contents, and that TOC should make it clear how you've organized the text (the order of the chapters, whether it is broken up into sections, etc.)

* What other books are similar to your anthology? How is your anthology different? Remember that your book is part of an ongoing conversation. You should discuss other texts that cover similar ground, and you should consider how your book is similar to or different from these texts.

Grading Criteria
You will receive a zero for the assignment (that is, I won't even read it) if you fail to meet the following requirements:

* You must name your word documents as follows

"lastname_section number_preface.doc" (e.g. "Smith_14_preface.doc")
"last name_sectionnumber_toc.doc" (e.g. "Smith_14_toc.doc")

* You must have eight sources
* You must have a table of contents
* You must provide in-text citations and have a Works Cited page in MLA format (see Chapter 22 of the textbook)
* You must complete one peer review and have your paper peer reviewed by at least one classmate

You will turn in your preface and a table of contents as separate documents. Each submission of this paper accounts for 12.5% of your grade (the entire assignment accounts for 25% of your grade). When grading this assignment, I will be evaluating the following:

* Is your paper formatted correctly? (MLA format: one-inch margins, double spaced, citing any texts not included in your anthology on a 'Works Cited' page.)
* Have you addressed the questions listed in the assignment description above?
* Have you appealed to the audience of your text?
* Have you explained the purpose of the text?
* Have you explained how the arguments clash and/or overlap?
* Does the preface show evidence that you've thoroughly researched the topic?
* Have you chosen appropriate pieces for your anthology?
* Is your proposal written effectively and coherently with very few grammatical errors?
* For the second submission: Have you significantly revised the paper? (Significant revision means that the paper looks different and has been reworked. This is much more than fixing sentence structure and grammar. It involves rethinking the arguments and content of the paper).
* Was the paper turned in on time? (Reminder: I do not accept late work.)