1. Fall ’09 Comp II – T Ansbro Today’s presentation will cover Essay paper tips FKCC databases Web evaluation

2. Your literary research involves… Literary reference materials to provide background information and criticism Journal or periodical articles Websites specifically aimed at literary research MLA documentation and citing sources to develop your Works Cited list

3. FKCC Catalog Keyword search tips: Books about author's works, type author name & “interpretation” or truncate the word “criticism” Shakespeare critic* Shakespeare interpretation Books about author's life /times, type author name & truncate “biography” Hemingway and biograph*

4. Subject heading search tips – use “subject contains” option rather than “exact” Poe criticism interpretation (or any author/poet)

6. Literature Resources (Gale)

7. JSTOR

8. Humanities Full Text (Wilson)

9. Lit Finder (Gale - Poem Finder, Story Finder, Essay/Speech/Play Finder)

11. Can easily limit your searches to scholarly/peer-reviewed articles

13. Scholarly or Peer-reviewed articles Often have an abstract Serious look - contain many graphs and charts - few glossy pages or exciting pictures Cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies and cite other scholarly writings, not popular works

14. Scholarly or Peer-reviewed articles Authors are scholars in the field Affiliations of the authors are listed--universities, research institutions Discipline coverage - assumes some scholarly background on the part of the reader

15. Popular or Scholarly?

16. Let’s search the Library Catalog & Databases

17. Still need to search the Internet? You may still wish to search the Internet for resources. Be sure to evaluate what you find Look for credible resources

19. Can you verify the information in another source?

21. Is there reason given to assume that the author is an authority in the subject?

22. Does the author provide contact information?

24. When was the web site created? When was it last updated?

26. Does the information contradict something you already know or have learned from another source?

28. MLA Style Books at FKCC Library (available at Circulation Desk) Gibaldi, Joseph, ed. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: MLA, 2009. (will be available soon) Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Aaron, Jane E. The Little, Brown Essential Handbook. New York: Longman, 2008.

29. Internet resources MLA formatting and writing style guide from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/MLA style from Diana Hacker Guide http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c08_s5.html FKCC Library Research Tools – Subject Guides – Literary Guide/Citation Guide http://library.fkcc.edu Be sure to acknowledge your sources and avoid plagiarism!