GNED 1300: Possible Worlds

Research Sources

Note: unless a separate link is provided below, you can access the electronic reference tools via the library's
Databases web page.  Those sources with a call number are located in the Coates Library.

1. Finding Books

Use Quest, the library's catalog, to locate books:

Author (as the subject of a book)

subject search for "Atwood, Margaret"  (note various subheadings, including "criticism and interpretation")

Topic

subject search for "Dystopias in literature"

Genre

subject search for "science fiction" yields useful entries such as "science fiction--history and criticism--bibliography"

Combination searches

keyword search for "women science fiction" [all of the words] or
"science fiction and (sex or gender)"

 

Reference Books (for background, bibliographies)

Science fiction writers : critical studies of the major authors from the early nineteenth century to the present day.   REFERENCE  PS 374.S35 S36 1999

Anatomy of wonder 4 : a critical guide to science fiction.  
REFERENCE  PN 3433.8 A745 1995

The Encyclopedia of science fiction.   REFERENCE  PN 3433.4 .E53 1993

British and American utopian literature, 1516-1985 : an annotated, chronological bibliography.   REFERENCE  Z 2014 U84 S28 1988

2. Finding Journal Articles

Use an appropriate journal database from the library's Databases web page.  Suggestions for literary topics include:

Academic Search Premier

Interdisciplinary index to several thousand academic journals AND popular periodicals, much of it in full text.  Limit your results to peer-reviewed journals with the checkbox on the search page.

 

Humanities Abstracts

Covers several hundred core titles in literature, philosophy, religion, etc.  Less full text available here than in Academic Search Premier, but note that we own the majority of journals in this index.

 

Literature Resource Center

A largely full-text resource with articles from literary reference books and scholarly and popular periodicals.

If the article listed in the index is not linked to full text, check the journal title (not the article title) in the library's Journals database (one of the top buttons on the library home page).  This service indicates if the library has a print subscription or if the article may be in full-text format in another database to which we subscribe.

3. Compiling the Bibliography

First, cite every idea you use from one of your readings!  Avoid plagiarism and also let your professor know which creative ideas are yours.

Second, use the proper citation format.  The MLA citation style is commonly used in the humanities.  Online citation examples can be found here.

Third, write annotations that briefly summarize the relevant content of the sources, provide evaluation, and show how the sources are or are not useful for your topic.  An excellent overview of writing annotations is provided at Cornell University here.