29 March 2005
Ex 2-2: Academic Research
Your assignment is to evaluate the article found at http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=10966&c=82, with particular attention to this claim:
"Slaves were bound in plantations from which they could not escape. Now, it is prisons that deprive black men of their freedom. For African-American men between the ages of 20 and 29, almost one in three are currently under the thumb of the criminal justice system." --Graham Boyd
Length: 2-3 pages, plus a full, complete MLA-style Works Cited list for all the resources you use. (Your paper itself can be an informal narrative.)
Objective: Demonstrate your ability to evaluate a scholarly source. (This includes tracing the source of the claims made by the author. You may use any resources you like, such as EBSCOHost, a reference librarian, or Google.)
Questions:
How credible is Boyd's article?
How accurate is the passage I quoted?
What evidence supports your answers? (Print out or photocopy pages, with relevant passages highlighted.)
What steps did you take to answer the previous two questions?
