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Literature 150: Women's Literature

Welcome to the Library

Hello Everyone,

This guide brings together the library resources that you will need to complete your Author Exploration and Analysis Project for Literature 150: Women's Literature. 

If you have any questions while you are working on this assignment, please contact the library. It's our job to help you! :) You can sign up for a research consultation with a librarian. You can also chat with a librarian by using the chat box on this page or in the library catalog and databases. 

Thanks, 
Katie Ediger, Truman College Library Department Chair   

Starting Your Research

CCC subscribes to many specialized databases that you can find in the list of Library Databases A-Z.

To get started on your research for this assignment you will be using Literature Resource Center and JSTOR to find:

  1. Biographical information about the author you will be writing about (Literature Resource Center)
  2. Criticism on your selected work of literature (JSTOR and Literature Resource Center)

Working With Sources

When assessing your resources for this assignment, consider:

  • Authority - Who is the author? What is their point of view? 
  • Purpose - Why was the source created? Who is the intended audience?
  • Publication & format - Where was it published? In what medium?
  • Relevance - How is it relevant to your research? What is its scope?
  • Date of publication - When was it written? Has it been updated?
  • Documentation - Did they cite their sources? Who did they cite?

For more in-depth pointers, visit the University of California Berkely Library guide to Evaluating Sources.

For this assignment you will include quotations and details from the text you are reading, and write annotations for each. These will help you engage with the text on a deeper level.

In your annotations you will be "closely analyzing the quotation or details, commenting on how the quotation is developing character, theme, narrative, point of view, historical context, or using a genre, literary device or narrative strategy or other techniques."

Make notes about your observations and ask questions according to these considerations and:

  • Use your own words and ask questions.
  • Highlight strategically: preview the text with your objective in mind so that you don't highlight every paragraph.
  • When you are finished, go back over your notes and mark and/or summarize the most important points.
  • Be sure to mark down page numbers in your notes so you can find main points more easily.

Other Resources