Rhet 1020, Short Response to a Scholarly Source, Assignment #4

500-750 words.

10% of your grade. Graded out of 25.

Due on Turnitin.com: Thursday, Sept. 30th, 11:59 pm.

Step 1: Fill out the handout on a scholarly source on your topic.

Category Questions Response

Type  What type of scholarly article
(e.g., research/empirical, case
study, review, meta-analysis,
theoretical, applied, book
review, letter to editor) is it?
Authors and  Are the authors considered
Affiliation experts in this field? What is
their expertise?

 Where are they employed?

Introduction  What specific problem does
the research address and are
the authors trying to prove or
disprove it?

 What is the contribution that

the authors are making to this
field?
Literature Review  Do the authors review articles
relevant to their research
study?

Method  What kind of research method

(qualitative, quantitative,
mixed methods) did the
authors use?

Research Sponsors  Is this research study

sponsored (e.g., university,
U.S. government, non-profit)?

References/Works  Are the sources listed historic,

Cited/Footnotes current or both?
Step 2: Questions to Address in Your Reading Response:
1. Identify what kind of scholarly source you have found. Is it useful for your research? What
field? Where was it published? Who wrote the article? Is it current, reliable and appropriate?

2. Does it provide a framework for thinking about your topic? If so, how? Does it provide you
with an overview of a particular problem? A controversy? A definition? Is it a case study that
involves statistics? Does it present you with a new way of resolving a problem? Is it theoretical?
What are the key terms in the field?

3. Name at least one scholar in the article who is referred to. Do they support the author?
Oppose him? Could their work be useful to you?

4. What new direction does this source give you? Does it raise other questions? What?

5. Scan the bibliography and find at least one article that might be useful to your research. Look
at the abstract and explain why it could be useful.

Rubric:

1. The response has a strong introduction that introduces why the scholarly source is useful for the
research question:
1-2 Not Present/Very Weak 3-4 -Somewhat Present/Poorly Written 5- Present/Excellently Written

2. The response contains a clear evaluation of the source’s reliability: where it was published and
who the authors are.
1-2 Not Present/Very Weak 3-4 -Somewhat Present/Poorly Written 5- Present/Excellently Written

3. The response briefly summarizes the information in the article and identifies key terms in the
field. Identifies a definition. A problem. A case study. A controversy.
1-2 Not Present/Very Weak 3-4 -Somewhat Present/Poorly Written 5- Present/Excellently Written

4. The response contains questions that were raised by the article.

1-2 Not Present/Very Weak 3-4 -Somewhat Present/Poorly Written 5- Present/Excellently Written

5. The response has a strong conclusion that names at least one scholar’s work from the
bibliography. The student uses the bibliography to find another scholarly source.
1-2 Not Present/Very Weak 3-4 -Somewhat Present/Poorly Written 5- Present/Excellently Written