Argumentative Topic: Annotated Bibliography

 Description: you will create an annotated bibliography consisting of seven sources. Each entry will consist of a reference list citation, a summary of the source’s information, and a one-sentence assessment. Each annotation should be between 150 to 200 words.

Think about some of your favorite subjects. 

What interests you the most? What ideas do you have about a topic?

You may want to mention and then briefly explain three ideas that you have pointing out the topic idea that is most appealing to you. 

Running head: RISE AND FALL OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY 1

Rise and Fall of the Personal Essay in Media

Student Name

Columbia Southern University

This is the running head. The words “Running

head” and the colon should only appear on title

page. If the title of your paper is longer than 50

characters (including spaces) shorten it in the

running head as seen here.

Annotated Bibliography Format Checklist

 1 inch margins

 Double spacing

 Times New Roman (suggested)

 Paragraphs indentation of .5 inch

(using Tab)

 All seven references in alphabetical

order

 Each annotation is 150-200 words

RISE AND FALL 2

Rise and Fall of the Personal Essay in Media

Almanza, M., Pfizer, A., & Mousislli, H. (2016). The dread rise. Journal of Journalism Studies,

7(89), 134-152. http://dx.doi.org/10.2597/234-4722.2016.05

This source is an article for the con side of the research topic. Almanza, Pfizer,

and Mousislli examine blogs and internet sites that allowed amateur writers to publish or

self-publish whatever stories they chose. The authors provide examples of stories as

tinder for their strong polemic on the personal essay. They also include a graph that

details the start of what they term the “Dread Rise,” or the rise in popularity of the

personal essay; the graph starts in 2008 and ends in late 2016. The graph will be used as a

visualization of the rise and fall of personal essays. Almanza et al. also argue that the

more confessional personal essays devalue the entire literary community by allowing

writers to publish work based on shock value instead of literary merit. They provide a

few excerpts from confessional essays that are truly absurd to thoroughly prove their

point. These excerpts will be used to argue the con part of the research paper’s argument.

Gordon, F., & Arden, D. (2014). The personal era of writing fiction, nonfiction, and everything

else. New York, NY: Indie Presses.

Gordon and Arden discuss how the confessional, or personal, essay has affected

nonfiction, fiction, and other genres of writing. They present two fiction and nonfiction

examples each and discuss the changes in form and diction. Examples of poetry and

feature articles are also provided and examined. Gordon and Arden believe that the rise in

personal and confessional essays affected the formal nature of writing in all genres. They

note that, societally, formality has changed writing and everything else, but there is a

First, list

your

reference in

APA Style.

The

annotation, or

summary of

the source,

should begin

under the

reference.

Indent the first

line of the

paragraphs in

your

annotations.

Center the title of your paper

above the first reference.

RISE AND FALL 3

large difference in the writing of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and feature writing after the

resurgence of the personal essay. There was also a rise in the personal and sometimes

irrelevant information included in an attempt to get readers to engage with a particular

publication exclusively. The readerships for the publications publishing personal essays

went up, but all of them saw a huge drop off in November 2016, causing a major shift in

the editorial processes of many publishers online or otherwise. Many online publishers

closed. The examples of the different kind of writing will be used to show the differences

in the writing styles.

Ma, Y., Turoi, M., Cho, J., & Idowu, A. (2015). A study of media and journalism. Journal-

Journal, 7(2), 13–25. doi:10.559/wjp.v5.i3.2313

This is another neutral source that simply lists certain aspects of journalism that

have changed over time. The authors documented the usage of certain words and types of

writing—essays, interviews, cover stories, and others. In their study, Ma, Turoi, Cho, and

Idowu noticed a spike in personal and confessional essays in journalism around 2008 and

a decline eight years later at the end of 2016. They speak on the reasons for this particular

phenomenon and include a number of interviews from journalists at two national news

organizations and three newspapers in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. The study

managed to present a balanced set of data that shows both the increase in the websites

using the personal essay boom for profit and authentic websites that were created to

combat the rise of personal essay news. This resource will be used to provide a different

perspective on the negative part of the argument.

You can also include how you will use the

source in your paper.

RISE AND FALL 4

National Personal Essay Society & Writers of Antarctica. (2013). Let us confess. Retrieved from

http://npes.org/files/public- docs/being-frank-the-importance-of-the-personal-essay

The National Personal Essay Society (NPES) and Writers of Antarctica (WOA)

discuss the internet sites and blogging platforms that ushered in the new age of personal

essays. Both organizations provide data on the effects of the personal and confessional

essay boom and attribute the rise in writers and journalists to this boom. Twitter is also

mentioned as a gate way to many young writers (the authors define young as 18-30)

exploring the craft of prose and where it intersects with news; many of them found their

writing skill through writing terribly inaccurate, yet stylistically interesting personal

essays. The NPES and WOA praise these writers and credit them with the return of

fiction and nonfiction that explores the depth of the human condition. They also list a few

of the writers that have gained respect through the personal and confessional essay. The

organizations note that this respect came partially due to the writers’ abilities to transition

from purely confessional and sometimes self-serving essays to more literary or

journalistic writing. This is a source with a very positive view of the argument.

Personal essay. (2016). In The Funk & Rollion Old World Encyclopedia. Retrieved from Funk &

Rollion Old World Encyclopedia database.

This article describes the use of personal essays in media. It details the different

uses of the personal or narrative essays and their reception since the last 1800s and early

1900s. Personal essays have never been considered reputable accounts. This resource

shows that this has changed throughout time as more and more newspapers, online and in

print, focus on them. The encyclopedia entry also provides dates for important milestones

Introduce

acronyms as

you would in a

regular paper

by including

them in

parenthesis

after their

organizational

name.

RISE AND FALL 5

in the personal essay’s history and notes important writers that cracked the personal, or

confessional, essay industry. It also notes that the fall of the personal essay was partly

due to shifting societal needs. This source is extremely important to the foundation of the

research paper; it provides dates and objective analysis on the personal essay from its rise

in popularity to its fall. The source will be the neutral source in that provides background

information, dates, and names of important personal essay writers.

Potter, H., Anders, D., Smith, C., Hash, M., Toppingham, P., Jacobson, Z., … Kim, S. (2013).

Disconnections in journalism and the personal narrative. PLoS ONE, 5(27).

doi:10.17871/journal.pone.10770

This resource was a collaboration between 37 authors that cataloged the internet’s

response to news stories from the major news outlets. The authors compared this

information to the responses garnered by the literary sites accepting the occasional new

worthy submission. Many of the websites specializing in showcasing creative writing

genres received an influx of stories that were personal essays but contained news

elements and angles not often taken by the national news outlets. Because of the influx of

this kind of prose, the sites started to publish them; from there they gained traction and

ballooned the viewership of these sites. Potter et al. mention that at the height of this

boom, the actual news content dwindled, and the confessional nature of them became

alternative for the sake of readers and hits. This resource will be used to highlight the

negative impact the confession essay wave had on news in general.

In an

annotated

bibliography,

you do not

need to cite

paraphrased

information.

It is not a

best practice

to include

directly

quoted

information

in your

annotations.

RISE AND FALL 6

Wong, P. S. (2016). Love for the confessional nature. Current Lit, 12(4), 23-27.

doi:10.3847/co.23.2935

Wong argues that confessing is part of the human condition as much as lying, and

it is cathartic to write in such a manner. She cites the restorative effects of journaling as

indicator of this and provides statistics that show the correlation between journaling and

improved mood. Wong uses this data to stress the importance of the confessional nature

of the more recent personal essays, and denounces critics of it. She does side with the

critics on one point, however. She agrees that there is a place for the confessional or

personal essay. While it is important to confess, Wong mentions that audiences should

not become stand-in priests; too much of the confessional essays can sink a career. This is

what she says happened when the stock in personal essays fell. People were tired of

reading purely personal information and started to switch to more informational reading

material.

Remember that the purpose of the assignment is to summarize the source you have

gathered for your research paper in your own words, so directly quoted material is not

required. You will not need to provide your opinions or personal experience. Present

the information relevant to your research paper topic in 150-200 words.