Your Liaison Librarian
Tue 3:30pm-5:30pm
Thu 3:30pm-5:30pm
Also available for meetings by appointment.
bharris@trinity.edu
Finding Sources for Your Presentation
The authors you will study in ENGL 3465 have been highly influential for poets, novelists, playwrights, and other creators. This assignment asks you to locate a writer who was inspired by one of the class poets and to discuss the influence of the class writer on the "inspired writer's" work. You will do this by locating a primary source written by the inspired writer and connecting it to the work of the writer from class.
For this presentation, most researchers will conduct two kinds of searches:
1. Locate secondary sources that connect a class poet or theme with an "inspired" American writer (optional)
Many of us would begin this project by conducting research using the internet or secondary sources to locate authors who have been inspired by a writer from the course syllabus. By conducting research on the inspired writer's influences and development, you may find a connection to a class writer or themes discussed in class. More easily, you might look at the writer from class and conduct research on their influence or impact and find an inspired author through that method. This is an optional part of the research process, as you may already be familiar with an author who was inspired by one of those from your class.
2. Locate texts written by the inspired American writer for analysis and comparison. (required)
For your presentation, you will need to find a primary source or a text written by the inspired writer that exhibits the influences of the class writer. You will want to select an authoritative and credible source for the primary text that conforms to ethical standards related to copyright. That means, just because it's available online does not necessarily mean it should be there and that you would cite it as part of an academic project.
Seven to ten days before your presentation, you will meet with the librarian for English Benjamin Harris via Zoom to touch base on your research progress. If you have already located the primary texts and helpful secondary texts, this will be a short meeting reviewing your process. If you are having any challenges in finding primary sources, in particular, this meeting will be a good opportunity to move forward in your work.
One tip: as you are making your selections and conducting research, remember that if the connection between the course and inspired writers is surprising and interesting to you, it will be more interesting to your audience.
Finding Primary Texts
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WorldCat (TexShare)WorldCat searches through all of the books in most libraries and the U.S. and beyond. It may be useful for this assignment because the contents information for each book is more complete in many cases when compared to the library catalog. This means that you will be able to locate shorter works in collections or poems, essays, or stories. To make your work more efficient, limit your results to items owned by our library when you begin searching.
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Library CatalogThe library's catalog of books and media is also a helpful option. If you know of a particular book you want to find or if you want to browse the books available by a particular author, this is the quickest option.
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Twentieth-Century Poetry (American and English) (TexShare)This collection of full-text poems by American authors may be a useful resource to find authoritative versions of primary texts or to explore the work of authors based on movements or time periods.
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GoogleDepending on the author and the texts you are seeking, it may be possible to find iterations of the text in reliable online sources. However, not all online publications honor and respect the copyright of the work and you wouldn't cite such a source in an academic project. If you locate and use a primary text taken from an online source, you should be certain that the information has been provided while honoring the author or the copyright holder of the work.
Using Secondary Sources
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MLA International Bibliography with Full TextYou should be familiar with this resource and if not, do become familiar with it. A researcher in a class such as this would be expected to go and use the MLA International Bibliography directly, almost in every case that research was warranted.
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Humanities SourceHumanities Source offers a good follow-up to the MLA database, and expands the scope of the search beyond literature-focused resources into other areas of the humanities.
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One Search: basic searchThe library's One Search database will give you results from across many databases, including articles from newspapers, magazines, and academic journals, as well as books, ebooks, and book chapters. It's what you could call a "dirty search" as it can be difficult to make the search or the results very refined.
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Google ScholarGoogle Scholar can be a useful tool for conducting searches of academic sources across disciplines. However, results are difficult to refine and full text versions may not be available online. If you find a useful source from an academic journal that is not available in full text from Google Scholar, search for the text using the library's resources.
Finding Sources in Print in the Library
I encourage you to use the print collection as you browse for primary texts. Remember that once used or returned, books are currently held for a 7-day quarantine before returning to the shelves.