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CMLT 2350: Science Fiction and the Environment

This guide is intended to help researchers begin and/or continue research on topics in Dr. Sullivan's course, "Science Fiction and the Environment."

The Assignment

This assignment requires you to locate sources for an annotated bibliography.  This bibliography will serve as source material for your group presentation/debate.

Your challenge will be to locate and integrate sources relating to both the literary elements of your topic as well as the environmental issues associated with your prompt.  This guide includes suggested starting points for finding materials that focus on literary criticism and the environmental/ecological science literature.

Refer to Dr. Sullivan's assignment description for details about the annotated bibliography.

A few suggestions before you start...

When searching for books use fewer, broad terms to find the full range of book and book chapters that may be relevant to your topic.  

When searching for articles you should also start with a broad search (author last name and a few words from the title of the work) and then narrow if needed.  

While using the library's big One Search feature at our homepage can cast the net wide across a lot of different types of sources, I do encourage you to search within specific databases as one method of limiting your search results to the most appropriate options for this assignment. 

Evaluating Your Research Process

As part of the required appointment with your librarian, the research process to date will receive a grade base on the following:

--Do you meet the minimum requirements of the assignment sheet?

--Have you looked at a variety of databases and options as you selected your (minimum) seven options?

--Do your research options offer substantive support for your approach to the debate assignment?

Note that one of the reasons for the assignment's requirements and this meeting is to be certain that researchers avoid the trap of going to one database and grabbing the first relevant sources on the list without exploring the literature on their topic.  Your goal should be to look at the bigger picture of the research and writing on your topic and then narrowing to the best options, rather than starting and stopping when you've found seven sources.