LTWR 100: Intro to Literature (Cucinella)

This guide is to help you with supplementary materials to support your close reading and analysis in order to write an effective paper. You will find it helpful to know about the author of the work you are reading as an author does not write in a vacuum, their experiences and social environment have influence on how they represent the world.

Note that you will be addressing a short story in Paper #1 and a play in Paper #2. These are both forms of literary text and will use many of the same sources, but there will be additional sources specialized for each of these genres. Much of your success will depend on using appropriate research tools, but remember to expand your research beyond the very basic. Doing so will enhance your paper (and your grade!)

Each essay requires a minimum of 3-4 critical sources to inform and support your analysis. These secondary critical sources are to be scholarly. What does scholarly mean in contrast to other labels you may see such as popular, trade or opinion? You will find that many published articles are not categorized and that what labels you may see are subject to interpretation, therefore not reliable in every situation.

So, it is up to you while doing your research to locate articles and determine their scholarly worth. We will discuss this in the library resource presentation. Additional information is found by following this link on how to identify scholarly sources.

In each of the modules on this course guide, suggested databases and subject headings for the library catalog will be offered. This will not be an exhaustive list, but a path on which to get started as you will find your specific focus and research will take you to paths not yet determined. Each tab will provide ideas for terminology, material from our library catalog (books, videos), and the research databases (articles) specific to that essay.