Start with Reference Books

Find general, background information on your author and work, try searching Gale's online Literary Index. Use Title search to find your work; use Author search to find your author. This will retrieve a list of reference books in which your author and/or his work appears. Check Tri-C's online catalog to see if we own the books, or ask at the Reference Desk on the 4th floor of the Library.

You might also try the following:

1. Poetry for Students, REF 808.81 P745s, Vols. 1-29
   
2. Poetry Criticism, REF 809.1 P745c, Vols. 1-80
3. Novels for Students, REF 809.005 N939s, Vols. 1-29
   
4. Short Stories for Students, REF 809.3105 S559s, Vols. 1-20
   
5. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, REF 809.034 N714c
   

You will find biographical information about your author, themes used, context, and interpretations by other people.

Use the information that you find in these reference books to find additional books and articles on your author/work.

To cite the excerpts that you find in Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, use these examples.

Finding Books

Use Tri-C's online catalog or OhioLINK's online catalog to find books about your poet or your poem.

1. Use a Keyword search and search for your author's name: william wordsworth OR wordsworth william
   
   This will retrieve a list of books that contain your author's name. Please note that the books may or may not be *about* the specific work you are writing on, or even your author. Check the catalog record and actual book carefully.
   
   
2. Use a Keyword search to search for your work's title: Frankenstein
   
   This will retrieve books that contain the title of your selected work. Again, please note that the books found may or may not be about the specific work. It could be the actual work itself. Always double-check!

Books may be requested from other campuses or university libraries free of charge. Use the request button or link. You will need your name, S number, and college.

Materials take 2-5 days to arrive, depending where in the state it is coming from. Pick them up at the 3rd floor circulation desk. Check your Library Account to see if they have arrived or call first (216-987-4292) before making a trip.

Finding Articles

Use our Literature research databases to find articles about your poet or poem. Much of what you will find is full-text. No need to come to the library to find a copy!

Try:

1. Literary Reference Center
   (On Campus Link | Off Campus Link) or
   
   
2. Literature Resource Center (On & Off Campus Link)

Again, use Keyword searching like you see in the Finding Books example. However, to narrow your search further, try adding in terminology you found during your background search. For example: Mary Shelley AND (gothicism or gothic)

Be sure to connect your terms with AND or OR for best results. Catalogs and Databases are very literal creatures! They look for things in the exact order you type them, and you will need to use AND or OR to tell them to find those words separately.

Citing Your Sources

You need to cite the information you found for several reasons.

1. You are using the intellectual property of others, and you need to give credit where credit is due for other people's words and ideas.
   
   
2. It lends credibility to your paper by demonstrating you researched your topic.
   
   
3. If people are interested in reading more about your topic, they can use your Works Cited page to find the sources you used.

Your Thomson Handbook contains a section on formatting books, articles and other material in the MLA citation style. Metro Campus also has the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, a *fascinating* 361 page read on citing just about anything.

Online examples of MLA citation style can be found by doing a Web search for: MLA citation style

For those that prefer more assistance, try using the Son of Citation Machine website to format your citations for you. Copy and paste the result into your paper.

Or, as you are searching in Literary Reference Center, use the FIND IT button to format your article citation for you. Alternatively, email the article to yourself with the MLA citation. Copy and paste into your document!