ENGL 1020: Composition II

Instructor: Lux

Librarian: E. Scott

Research Assignment

Select an author.

Examine their life, the times in which they live(d), artistic movements, political situations, etc. to discover the influences on the development of their work.

Use examples from their work to illustrate your points.

This paper is NOT a biography of the author's life, but instead should focus on the artistic/social/political environment that influenced the author's work and how these ideas are demonstrated in the author's compositions. 

For your paper you may choose to look at one play, one or more short stories, or at least two poems the author composed. This paper should be a critical analysis of these works and demonstrate how the author's life and thoughts influenced their creations. Make sure you investigate the literary tradition from which your author emerged.

 

Reference Books

 Located in the Reference section

 

General Author Information
Contemporary Authors Ref Z 1224 .C6
Contemporary Authors New Revision Series Ref Z 1224 .C582
Dictionary of Literary Biography Ref PN 441 .D53

Cumulative index is located at the end of the last volume

American Writers
American Writers Ref PS 129 .A55
American Women Writers Ref PS 147 .A4
Modern American Woman Writers Ref PS 151 .M54
Twentieth-Century American Literature Ref PS 221 .T834
Modern American Literature Ref PS 221 .C8
Reader's Guide to Fifty American Poets Ref PS 316 .J723
British Writers
British Writers Ref PR 85 .B688
Twentieth-Century British Literature Ref PR 473 .T84
Modern British Literature Ref PR 473 .T4

General Literature Criticism
Black Literary Criticism Ref PS 153 .N5 B556

Contemporary Literary Criticism

For writers now living or deceased since 1960

 Ref PN 771.C59

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism

For writers who lived between 1900 - 1960

Ref PN 771 .G27

Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism

For writers who lived between 1800 - 1900

Ref PN 761 .N5
Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 Ref PN 86 .L56
World Literature Criticism Ref PN 523 .W67
Twentieth-Century Criticism of British & American Literature to 1904 Ref PR 85 .C76

                 

 

Use the library catalog to find books in our library about your chosen topic.

For Example . . .

Sometimes as you search the catalog, you'll find an item that looks like this:

Notice the phrase [electronic resource] in the title and the location of  Online netLibrary Book Collection -- these two items let you know that this book is a netLibrary online book.  To read this book, click on the title, then click on the Read this ebook online link within the record to browse the book in the NetLibrary database.

 

Journal, Magazine, and Newspaper Articles

To quickly locate articles from magazines, journals, and newspapers, visit some library databases, including:

Literature Resource Center is an excellent resource for your research.  For information about a specific work, start with the search.

For Example . . .

 
  Wilson OmniFile Full Text will be an excellent place to find scholarly articles for your research assignment.  Try searching for the title of the work you have chosen to analyze.  For example . .  .

Notice also that once you do a search, OmniFile gives you a list of suggested subjects that may help to further refine your research.  For example, based on the search shown above, OmniFile suggests . . .

For Example . . .

Or . . .

 JSTOR is a fantastic resource that will allow you to find high-quality scholarly journal articles related to your research topic.

You will want to start your search in JSTOR with the "Advanced Search" option.  You can enter either the author or the title of the story for your search.

Be sure to UN-CHECK the box for "Search for links to articles outside of JSTOR."

Also be sure to CHECK the box for "Article."

These options will return the best search results.

Need help citing sources from Databases?

Be sure to visit the MLA Citation Examples for Electronic Databases!

Ask your librarian or instructor for the user id and password to access these databases off campus--or view instructions online.

Please complete the Library Instructor Evaluation.

 

Still have questions?

Visit the library or call the Reference Desk

at 697-4436.

Spring  2008