Using Research Skills for Literary Criticism Research
Use this Log to practice using research strategies and selecting library resources, and to track your results. The left side of this worksheet gives examples based
on the class theme "Rebellious Women and American Literature." The right side allows you to explore the topic you have chosen for your class assignment.
Creating a Research Statement or Question
Sample topic:
Your topic:
Rebellious Women: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Sample research statement or question:
Your research statement or question:
How do the life and work of Charlotte Perkins
Gilman reflect the pressures that society places
on one who resists?
Key concepts for sample research statement:
Key concepts for your research statement:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Yellow Wallpaper
and other works, gender roles (female roles,
male roles, sex roles), resistance (resist, oppose,
defy, confront, protest)
Identifying the KINDS OF INFORMATION You Will Need
Do you need books? articles? newspapers? recent material? historical material? primary sources? a lot of data? just a few facts?
The kinds of information that might help develop our
sample research statement :
- Materials that provide a historical context (biographies,
historical information, encyclopedias)
- Materials that address gender theory (analysis of
gender theory during that time, analysis of gender
theories now)
The kinds of information that you think you might need:
What resources will help you locate the types of information you have identified?
-
The Pace Library Catalog can locate books in any of the Pace University Library locations.
Periodical databases will help you locate articles in scholarly journals and/or popular magazines.
Reference tools provide access to biographical information, criticism of literary works, as well as bibliographies of additional books and
scholarly journal and/or magazine articles.
Using the PACE LIBRARY CATALOG to LOCATE BOOKS on Your Topic
The Pace Library Catalog includes books and other materials owned by the Pace University Library (NOTE: To access the contents of a journal, you will
need to use a database. The Pace University Library Catalog does not contain that information.) From the Library home page at http://library.pace.edu.,
click on the Books & Multimedia via Catalog button.
Sample Searches in the Catalog
Your Searches and results:
Yellow Wallpaper as Title
5 items
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins as Author
28 items
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins as Subject
33 items
-browse to Criticism and Interpretation 13 items
Gilman and criticism as Keyword
36 items
Gilman and crit*
50 items
Gilman and gender
12 items
Gilman and (women or gender)
51 items
Selecting and Retrieving the Books You Have Found
There are many reasons why one book may be better than another for your project, such as if the book is in-depth enough for your needs, the information
is accurate, the experience of the author, and if the information is current enough.
Make your selections on the following page based on your needs.
2
Relevant book selected from our results:
Relevant books selected from your results:
Title: Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short
Fiction
Author: Denise D. Knight
Date Published: 1997
Title:
Author:
Date Published:
Subject Headings:
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860-1935 -- Criticism and
interpretation
Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th
century
Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th
century
Short Story
Subject Headings:
Location:
Call Number:
Location: Birnbaum Stacks - NYC
Call Number: PS1744.G57 Z734 1997
Status: available
Status:
Why it was selected:
Why it was selected:
The title and subject headings included concepts that
matched the concepts in the sample research statement.
The dates matched the time period included in the
sample research statement.
__________________________________________________
Title:
Author:
Date Published:
Subject Headings:
Location:
Call Number:
Status:
Why it was selected:
3
Using LIBRARY DATABASES To LOCATE ARTICLES:
Databases allow you to locate articles within journals and magazines. From the Library home page at http://library.pace.edu, click on the Articles via
Databases link.
ResearchLibraryI is a general database that contains many items relevant to literature research. Select Research Library from the alphabetical list of
databases. NOTE: Research Library includes book and movie reviews, which you may or may not want to use in your research.
Research Library
Research Library
Sample Searches:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Gilman and criticism
Gilman and crit?
Gilman and gender
Gilman and (women or gender)
Gilman and (resist? or protest? or
confront? or oppos? or def?)
Your Searches and Results:
35 items
42 items
49 items
12 items
5 items
35 items, 0 relevant
MLA Bibliography is one of the central databases in the field of literature. From the Databases page, select Literature from the Subject Research Area
list. From the list of literature databases, select MLA Bibliography. NOTE: MLA Bibliography contains many items written in different languages. You
may want to limit your Searches to English language only.
MLA Bibliography
Sample Searches:
MLA Bibliography
Your Searches and Results:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman as Subject
255 items
Gilman and Yellow Wallpaper in Default Fields
43 items
Gilman and criticism in Default Fields
47 items
Gilman and crit* in Default Fields
113 items
Gilman and gender in Default Fields
29 items
Gilman and (women or gender) in Default Fields
126 items
4
Selecting and Retrieving the Articles You Have Found
Select articles from your searches that you think will be relevant for your topic. If the article you want is not full-text, you will need to use the Journal
Title search option in the Pace Library Catalog to determine if the item is available at Pace.
Relevant article selected from our results:
Relevant articles selected from your results:
Article Title: ‘Too Terribly Good To Be Printed':
Charlotte Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
Article Author: Conrad Shumaker
Date Article Published: 1985
ArticleTitle:
Article Author:
Date Article Published:
Source or Journal Title: American Literature: A
Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and
Bibliography
Volume: 57 Number : 4
Pages: 588-599
Source or Journal Title:
Volume:
Pages:
Article Subject Headings:
Article Subject Headings:
American literature; 1800-1899
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
The Yellow-Wallpaper; short-story
Treatment of repression; of women
Relationship to madness
Library Holdings:
Library Catalog Holdings: The Mortola Library
and the Birnbaum Library have the 1985 issue on
Microfilm.
Article Title:
Article Author:
Date Article Published:
Why article was selected:
The title and subject headings included concepts that
matched the concepts in the sample research
statement. The dates matched the time period
included in the sample research statement.
Source or Journal Title:
Volume:
Pages:
Why article was selected:
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Article Subject Headings:
Library Holdings:
Why article was selected:
5
CITING Your Research Sources Using MLA Format
The following example show MLA citation format for a book and for an article retrieved from on of the library’s subscription databases. For more
information, please see the guide to Citing Resources on the Library’s home page under the Help column. Here you fill find information on different
citation formats and a list of database URLs for citation purposes
Book referenced in our research paper:
Book referenced in your research paper
Title: Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction
Author: Denise D. Knight
Date Published: 1997
Place of Publication: New York
Publisher: Twayne Publishers
Title:
Author:
Date Published:
Place of Publication:
Publisher:
MLA Citation:
MLA Citation:
Knight, Denise D. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A study of Short
Fiction. New York: Twayne Publisher, 1997.
Article referenced in our research paper:
Article referenced in your research paper:
Article Title: Gilman's Arabesque Wallpaper
Article Author: Marty Roth
Date Published: Dec 2001
Source or Journal Title: Mosaic: a Journal for the
Interdisciplinary Study of Literature
Volume: 34 Number: 4
Pages: 145 - 162
Database, Vendor, URL: Research Library, UMI-Proquest,
http://www.umi.com
Date Accessed: October 13, 2004
Article Title:
Article Author:
Date Published:
Source or Journal Title:
Volume:
Number:
Pages:
Database, Vendor, URL:
Date Accessed:
MLA Citation:
MLA Citation:
Roth, Marty. “Gilman’s Arabesque Wallpaper.” Mosaic: A
Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 34.4
(2001): 145-162. Research Library. UMI-Proquest. Pace
University Library, Pleasantville, NY. 13 Oct. 2004
http://www.umi.com.
Adapted from an original developed by the librarians at The Libraries of the Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA
Instruct/ENG 120/Literature Research Log.doc
6
Revised KD 9/04