ENG102: Writing About Literature (Beaulieu-Smith)
What is a Reference Resource?
Reference resources are usually encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, manuals and other books that you would refer to when wanting to know a definition of a word or concept, a general overview of a topic, specific information about a certain period of time or event in history.
eReference Resources
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text online versions of hundreds of top quality reference books in all major subjects from art to medicine, psychology to history, and technology to literature. Includes bilingual and biographical dictionaries.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography - Gale This link opens in a new windowFull text database providing biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genre. The award-winning Gale Literature: Dictionary of Literary Biography provides comprehensive access to the series dedicated to making literature and its creators better understood and more accessible to students and interested readers while simultaneously satisfying the standards of librarians, teachers, and scholars. The series provides reliable information on authors and their works in an easy to understand, engaging format, while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history. Dictionary of Literary Biography includes the main series, documentary, and yearbook volumes.
- Gale eBooks (Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new windowFull text database providing subject specific dictionaries, encyclopedias and general reference books as well as the online version of the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Subjects include science, history, medicine, psychology and mental health, literature, drama, film, popular culture, business, law, and more.
Using Wikipedia
Using Wikipedia can be a great place to start your research. You can learn about a topic, much like you can in Credo Reference, but you can also find links to other sources. Never cite Wikipedia, but use it as a jumping off point for your research.
For example, look up the author Kate Chopin, who wrote Desire's Baby.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin
- you will see all of Kate Chopin's works listed. Check under the References section to see if there is an essay about Desire's Baby. There could also be a book mentioned with a link to the actual book. Use the Reference section as a jumping off point to secondary sources.
Specifc Encyclopedias
The Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780747533436Publication Date: 1997Presents a multiplicity of authors, texts and themes gathered together into one authoritative source. The key attractions are entries on writers, entries on individual works, Biblical and mythological characters and events, literary and critical terms and movements, and entries describing historical, cultural and social events.
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780521831796Publication Date: 2006-01-26An authoritative and international survey of world literature in English. The Guide covers everything from Old English to Contemporary Writing from all over the english-speaking world. It covers poems, novels, literary journals and plays.
Women's Issues in Kate Chopin's the Awakening by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780737758191Publication Date: 2011-10-26Published in 1899, Kate Chopin's The Awakening refused to shy away from its progressive depictions of femininity and womanhood, defying and challenging the status quo. This informative edition explores the theme of women's issues as they relate to The Awakening, investigating topics such as independence, inequality, and identity. Readers are provided with an extensive bibliography of author Kate Chopin, a series of essays the expand upon themes of gender found within the text, and a selection of modern thought on gender and gender roles.
The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780231504959Publication Date: 2004-04-21Esteemed critic Blanche Gelfant's brilliant companion gathers together lucid essays on major writers and themes by some of the best literary critics in the United States. Part 1 is comprised of articles on stories that share a particular theme, such as "Working Class Stories" or "Gay and Lesbian Stories," and part 2 contains more than one hundred essays on the lives and work of individual writers, including engaging pieces on promising new writers.- The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781849721325Publication Date: 2006-02-14
- The literature of war. Volume 1 by Call Number: eBookISBN: 1410337774Publication Date: 2012The Literature of War deals with a topic that goes beyond the literary perspective to provide the historical, cultural and social context of works that focus on armed conflict throughout the world and time. It highlights the realities of war, its impact on society, and how it affects our understanding of it.
