Winneconne High School -- Humanities

Course Specific Resources

 

 

Quick question: 

 

What are some research questions we have?

 

 

Visit Goal: 

 

Access some sources that will help see the big picture of chosen text including the author, historical context, world acclaim, influences, etc.

 

3 Research Steps to a Successful Paper

 

  1. Explore and pick a topic
  1. Learn the basics of your topic:  Who, what, when, where, why. You should be able to talk for a minute, without repeating yourself, on your possible topic.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

TIP: When you participate in research or scholarship, you are entering into an ongoing conversation; you have to listen or read about that conversation before find an interesting, relevant question. Many try to skip this step and end frustrated.                                                                 

You wouldn't want to go up to two strangers on the street and join their conversation before you knew what they were talking about.

 

  1. Find an interesting question--not too easy, not too fuzzy, not too many parts, not too impossible. Should require analysis and thought.

 

4 common research question pitfalls

  1. Question that isn't there. (just a summary of others' ideas).
  2. The fuzzy question (question is too broad or unclear).
  3. Multi-part question (tackling too much, no focus.)
  4. The question that will not fly. (impossible to research, won't be able to find data or information)

 

Research Tips: 

  1. Start with a good background source that will help you get familiar with the overview fast. 
  2. Identify the keywords that will help you find sources that will reveal the context of your book. 
  3. Be aware of the different sources and what type of material you can find in each. 
  4. Possible keywords: name of novel, culture, "popular culture", "cultural impact", politics, history, society
  5. Research the author, identify period, key words, phrases associated with them.

 

Background Sources

 

Oxford English Dictionary

Online version of the Oxford English Dictionary. Search for OED's definition of a word or phrase, etymologies and quotations.

 

Contemporary Authors

Contemporary Authors provides complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors.

 

Gale Literature Criticism Online

Full text access to Gale's Literature Criticism resources.

  

Literary Reference Center

Literary Reference Center contains full text for more than 100,000 resources including full text articles, biographies, plot summaries, and book reviews.

 

LitFinder

LitFinder provides full-text poems, essays, plays, speeches, and short stories. Provided by Badgerlink.

 

Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE)

DARE represents the full panoply of American regional vocabulary and has long been consulted by a wide range of scholars and lovers of language and regional nuance.

 

 

Literature Databases

 

MLA International Bibliography

Produced by the Modern Language Association, the MLA International Bibliography provides access to scholarly research in over 3,000 journals and series, including records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore.

 

JSTOR

JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.

 

Project Muse

A leading provider of digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community.

 

Humanities International Complete

Provides full text to hundreds of journals, books and other published sources from around the world including full text for more than 1,200 journals.

 

Academic Search Complete

Academic Search Complete contains full text, indexing and abstracts, monographs and reports from more than 13,000 publications.

 

Early English Books Online

Contains over 96,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475 - 1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700).