ENGL 431: Gothic America: Getting Started

Use this guide to get started with your research

for ENGL 431: Gothic America

 by Shane Gorski
This work is licensed under a CC BY-ND 2.0 Generic License.

As experienced researchers, you all bring a wide range of skills and practices to your individual projects and our collective workspace. To guide our discussion and foster cooperative learning, we will collaboratively generate a list of our top research tactics (e.g. go-to tools, search strategies, methods for staying organized, etc.). This list will remain accessible for you to refer to it throughout the semester.

Add your Top 5 Research Tactics to the Padlet below! 

Some questions to think about before you dive in:

Primary Sources

• Have you considered the full range of possible primary sources and only then selected the text?
• Do you/will you have access to the primary source(s) in the editions you need?
• Need help with identifying potential primary sources?  Search Literature Resource Center and Literature Criticism Online for lists of literary works.

Historical Sources

• Who was reading what when? Issues of readership and reception may be important!  Do you need access to these historical sources themselves?

Secondary sources

• The MLA International Bibliography is the obvious subject database to search, but would it be helpful to also search the databases of other disciplines, specifically history and religion?

Critical/Theoretical Approaches

• Will it be helpful to note reactions to various critical approaches?  For example, will you need to look at reviews of scholarly books?