English 6001This is a featured page

Introduction to Graduate Studies


1. Introduction to the major research tools for the study of English
2. Survey and evaluation of various methods in literary criticism. Required for M.A. in English.

Feeling Overwhelmed by Research and Graduate Work?

Remember, it’s all
  • do-able and
  • supported
    • by your professor
    • by your librarian
    • by whomever you need to help you through your process
All you need are the following:

Desire Good work ethic Persistence Planning Your Time


The rest we can work on together.

Tracking Tools

Assignment Calculator: http://library.csueastbay.edu/calc/freecalc/index.php
Zotero: tracks what you've researched (use Mozilla Firefox as your browser for this tool)

Topic Development

There's a tutorial on topic development on the English subject guide on the library web site.
The examples are not English subjects; however, the principles are applicable and might help you.

Annotations and Abstracts

There's also a tutorial on annotations and abstracts on the English subject guide.
In this case, the examples are in the field of English literature.

Major Research Tools

Access what CSUEB has to offer through the English subject guide on the library web site.
http://library.csueastbay.edu/guides/english/

Of particular interest to Literature majors are the following (available at CSUEB):

Library Catalogs (CSUEB or other)
Oxford English Dictionary (connect through Databases A-Z on the library home page)
Gale Virtual Reference Shelf (connect through Databases A-Z on the library home page)
Digital Dissertations: Humanities and Social Sciences Collection (connect through Databases A-Z on the library home page)
Modern Language Association International Bibliography (linked to a wiki page about the MLA-IB; connect to the database through Databases A-Z on the library home page)
WorldCat (linked to Open WorldCat)

Also of use are the following retrospective full text compilations (generally 3-5 years behind):

JSTOR
ProjectMUSE

Sources Elsewhere

Check the University of California, Berkeley Library Catalog at http://oskicat.berkeley.edu
Check the Stanford University Library Catalog at http://socrates.stanford.edu

Both Berkeley and Stanford carry Literature Online and Early English Books Online.
You can also check their database lists and see what else might be of use to you.

Important Note: Before traveling to either site, check their library web sites or contact them to be sure you understand their hours, what is available to you, what you need to take with you to ensure that you can gain access, and any other details you need (parking, transportation, etc.). You don't want to travel there and find you can't do what you need to do.
Important Note 2: Once you establish when you can go and what you can do when you're there, plan ahead! Make sure you know exactly what you need to search and what you are trying to extrapolate from your searches. Do not hesitate to ask for help at the reference desk if you need it.

Borrowing through CSUEB

LINK+: Borrow books from our consortium. Click on "Repeat search in LINK+" button if we don't have the book
or if it's checked out to someone else.
Interlibrary Loan: Navigate from within the database or request an item directly from our Interlibrary Loan site.

Citation

The Authority: MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd. ed., 2008.
Note: this is the edition for researchers and graduate students. Do not use an earlier edition.
Location: Ask at the Reference Desk for this book.

For help with citations, you can go to the library home page and click on "Cite Your Sources."
You will be given links to The Owl at Purdue, Research and Documentation by Diana Hacker, and Assemble a List of Works Cited (Duke University).
There are also links to three tutorials:
1. Citation Puzzle: This helps you to find the information on your sources.
2. MLA Citation Puzzle: This helps you to formulate the citation from the information you found.
3. Decoding Citation: This helps you to understand what citations mean, particularly those constructed under older citation formats.
These links are also on the English subject page.

Remember Zotero helps you formulate citations and is also helpful for tracking (use Mozilla Firefox for Zotero).

Threshold Concepts in Information Competency

  1. content and format are different concepts
  2. word searches are not subject heading searches
  3. a platform is not a database
  4. knowing Boolean and proximity operators is one key to effective searching
  5. developing information competency is a lifelong process

Help

  • Make an appointment and we can work together (individual, small groups)
  • Get help through the various forms of help offered by the library: in person (reference desk), chat, 24/7, telephone
The link is on our home page. You can get help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Contact Information

Aline Soules
510 - 885 - 4596
aline(dot)soules (at) csueastbay(dot)edu
_______________________________________________
© Aline Soules 2010
under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/






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