ENG 498: Senior Seminar: Home

With all of the new developments in information storage and retrieval, researchers today need a clear and comprehensive overview of the full range of their options, both online and offline, for finding the best information quickly. In this third edition of The Oxford Guide to Library Research, Thomas Mann maps out an array not just of important databases and print sources, but of several specific search techniques that can be applied profitably in any area of research. From academic resources to government documents to manuscripts in archives to business Web sites, Mann shows readers how best to exploit controlled subject headings, explains why browsing library shelves is still important in an online age, demonstrates how citation searching and related record searching produce results far beyond keyword inquiries, and offers practical tips on making personal contacts with knowledgeable people. Against the trendy but mistaken assumption that "everything" can be found on the Internet, Mann shows the lasting value of physical libraries and the unexpected power of traditional search mechanisms, while also providing the best overview of the new capabilities of computer indexing. Throughout the book Mann enlivens his advice with real-world examples derived from his experience of having helped thousands of researchers, with interests in all subjects areas, over a quarter century. Along the way he provides striking demonstrations and powerful arguments against those theorists who have mistakenly announced the demise of print. Essential reading for students, scholars, professional researchers, and laypersons, The Oxford Guide to Library Research offers a rich, inclusive overview of the information field, one that can save researchers countless hours of frustration in the search for the best sources on their topics.

There are two kinds of student researchers: those who thrive on the time and detail demands of the research process and those who would rather have a root canal than develop a thesis statement. The Subject Is Research is written for both of them. The contributors, some of whom are students, all realize that sometimes the process works and sometimes it doesn't. But by researching and studying their processes, they've all improved and gained satisfaction from their work. The Subject Is Research provides the insight and ideas, directions and insider's advice that will help your students become the best research writers they can be. This research can take many forms - from library and Web searching to interviewing and watching television. Some chapters explode myths about research and others offer inventories, exercises, and alternatives to help students begin, continue, and complete a research project with more comfort and success than they have previously experienced. There are also chapters that illuminate what students are being asked to do. For extra help, "Sharing Ideas" at the end of each section encourage students to think aloud (or in a journal or classroom discussion) about their relationships to systematic, scholarly inquiry, and "Hint Sheets" at the end of the book offer lots of activities and resources for both teachers and students, including information sources, style sheets, and much more.

For more than half a century, James D. Hart's The Oxford Companion to American Literature has been an unparalleled guide to America's literary culture, providing one of the finest resources to this country's rich history of great writers. Now this acclaimed work has been completely revised and updated to reflect current developments in the world of American letters. For the sixth edition, editors James D. Hart and Phillip Leininger have updated the Companion in light of what has happened in American literature since 1982. To this end, they have revised the entries on such established authors as Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, and Joyce Carol Oates, and they have added more than 180 new entries on novelists (T. Coraghessan Boyle, Tim O'Brien, Louise Erdrich, Don De Lillo), poets (Rita Dove, Weldon Kees), playwrights (Wendy Wasserstein, August Wilson), popular writers (Stephen King, Louis L'Amour), historians (James M. McPherson, David Herbert Donald, William Manchester), naturalists (Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey), and literary critics (Camille Paglia, Richard Ellmann). In addition, the Companion boasts more women's, African-American, and ethnic voices, with new entries on such luminaries as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, M.F.K. Fisher, William Least Heat-Moon, Ursula Le Guin, and Oscar Hijuelos, among many others. These additions represent only some of the revisions for the new edition. Of course, the basic qualities of the Companion that readers have grown to know and love over the years are as superb as ever. With over 5,000 total entries, The Oxford Companion to American Literature reflects a dynamic balance between past and contemporary literature, surveying virtually every aspect of our national literature, from the Pulitzer Prize to pulp fiction, and from Walt Whitman to William F. Buckley, Jr. There are over 2,000 biographical profiles of important American authors (with information regarding their styles, subjects, and major works) and influential foreign writers as well as other figures who have been important in the nation's social and cultural history. There are more than 1,100 full summaries of important American novels, stories, essays, poems (with verse form noted), plays, biographies and autobiographies, tracts, narratives, and histories. The new edition provides historical background and astute commentary on literary schools and movements, literary awards, magazines, newspapers, and a wide variety of other matters directly related to writing in America. Finally, the book is thoroughly cross-referenced and features an extensive and fully updated index of literary and social history. Ranging from Captain John Smith to John Updike, and from Anne Bradstreet to Anne Rice, the sixth edition of The Oxford Companion to American Literature is up to date, accurate, and comprehensive, a delight for both the casual browser and the serious student.

From Anne Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America in the seventeenth century, to Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize in 1993, women writers have woven a rich tapestry of voices across four centuries of American history. Their writings have embraced a marvelous diversity of visions, including those of Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Cynthia Ozick, Gwendolyn Brooks, Kate Chopin, Maya Angelou, Annie Dillard, Joan Didion, Edith Wharton, Adrienne Rich, Djuna Barnes, and Willa Cather. The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States provides a comprehensive, authoritative, and highly informative survey of these writers and their work as it illuminates the issues that fired their imaginations. Here is a goldmine of information about women's writing, women's history, and women's concerns--over eight hundred entries, ranging from brief identifications to extensive essays. The volume boasts contributions by many well-known thinkers, including Susan Faludi writing on backlash, Deborah Tannen on communications between the sexes, Jane Gallop on Lacanian psychoanalysis, Nell Irvin Painter on Sojourner Truth, and Trudier Harris on Toni Morrison. There are nearly four hundred biographical entries, touching on not only important poets, novelists, and playwrights (including such modern figures as Wendy Wasserstein, Anne Tyler, Alice Walker, and Tama Janowitz), but also women writers who have made important contributions in other fields, such as Betty Friedan, Rachel Carson, Margaret Mead, Aimee Semple McPherson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. Perhaps most important, there is extensive coverage of the many personal, cultural, and historical issues that have been explored by and have influenced the lives and productivity of women writers, including AIDS, race and racism, violence and sexual harassment, the Civil War, the civil rights movement, and much more. There is also coverage of the publishing world (including bookstores and women's presses), the art and practice of writing, and contemporary literary criticism (including lesbian literary theory, black feminism, and deconstruction). The women who have written beautifully, poignantly, tenderly, humorously, or powerfully about America and American lives are indeed a heterogeneous group. The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States captures this remarkable diversity, painting a fascinating portrait of women and women's writing in America.

This anthology of classic and cutting-edge statements in literary theory has now been updated to include recent influential texts in the areas of Ethnic Studies, Postcolonialism and International Studies A definitive collection of classic statements in criticism and new theoretical work from the past few decades All the major schools and methods that make up the dynamic field of literary theory are represented, from Formalism to Postcolonialism Enables students to familiarise themselves with the most recent developments in literary theory and with the traditions from which these new theories derive

Feminism has dramatically influenced the way literary texts are read, taught and evaluated. Feminist literary theory has deliberately transgressed traditional boundaries between literature, philosophy and the social sciences in order to understand how gender has been constructed and represented through language. This lively and thought-provoking Companion presents a range of approaches to the field. Some of the essays demonstrate feminist critical principles at work in analysing texts, while others take a step back to trace the development of a particular feminist literary method. The essays draw on a range of primary material from the medieval period to postmodernism and from several countries, disciplines and genres. Each essay suggests further reading to explore this field further. This is the most accessible guide available both for students of literature new to this developing field, and for students of gender studies and readers interested in the interactions of feminism, literary criticism and literature.

The early years of American nationhood, beginning at the close of colonial rule and ending with the onset of the Civil War, saw both a young country and its literature grow in confidence and develop an awareness of self-identity. Pride in the new nation was a primary characteristic of much literary output in the early years of the country, whether in the form of fiction, poetry, drama, essay, travel writing, or journal. As the country grew and generations began to be born on the new land, Romanticism took hold, lauding not only the construct of the nation but also the natural power and potential of the country. This era of American literary expression has left behind a rich legacy of traditionally canonized authors, as well as material published in the growing periodical press that was of immediate importance to the population at the time. Literary Research and the Era of American Nationalism and Romanticism: Strategies and Sources examines the resources that deal with the literature produced in the approximately 70 years of antebellum American literature. Covering all formats, the volume discusses bibliographies, indexes, research guides, archives, special collections, microform, and digital primary text resources and how they are best utilized for a literary research project. Suggestions are offered for best practices for research while exploring a wide selection of resources that run the gamut from classic standards of American literary bibliography through contemporary open-access digital resources.

The British Romantic era (ca. 1775-1830) was a time of contradictions, of growth, and of diversity in all aspects of English life. "Romanticism" originally referred to the works of six male poets: Wordsworth, Blake, Shelley, Coleridge, Keats, and Byron. However, current scholarly attempts to demonstrate that the period encompasses a rich and varied range of poets, essayists, and novelists of both genders have caused the definition to come under debate. Not limiting itself to these six figures, Literary Research and the British Romantic Era discusses English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh resources for both primary and secondary research within the Romantic Era, including general literary research guides; union library catalogs; print and online bibliographies; manuscripts and archives; microfilm and digitization projects; eighteenth and nineteenth century journals and newspapers; contemporary reviews; and electronic texts, journals, and Web resources. Each chapter addresses the best methods to extract relevant information from the research tools employed, enabling scholars to find relevant materials. The strengths and weakness of core and specialized electronic and print research tools and standard search techniques are also examined.

Characterized by its move away from Romanticism and toward mundane, everyday subjects and ideas such as metanarrative, stream of consciousness, and disjointed timelines, the American Modernist Era was at its heyday during the years 1914-1949. It produced great authors-Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald-and memorable works-As I Lay Dying and The Great Gatsby.

This work describes the lives and work of female literary figures.

Among the 18 authors in the Supplement are Paul Auster, Robert Olen Butler, Peter Cameron, John Knowles, J.D. McClatchy, Ann Patchett and others.

Each print volume in this long-standing series profiles approximately four to eight short story writers by providing full-text or excerpted criticism taken from books, magazines, literary reviews, newspapers and scholarly journals. Among those profiled in this volume are:Jorge Luis BorgesZora Neale HurstonD. H. LawrenceRobert Penn Warren

Each print volume in this long-standing series profiles approximately 6-8 novelists, poets, playwrights and other creative writers by providing full-text or excerpted criticism taken from books, magazines, literary reviews, newspapers and scholarly journals. Among those profiled in this volume are:Judy BlumePhilip K. DickJohn GardnerAyn Rand

The first volume of this kind, Research Methods for English Studies introduces final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students taking Masters degrees or PhDs to a range of research methods deployed in the study of English, particularly for the periods of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book covers methods familiar to many English scholars. It also encourages creative engagement with less familiar research methods in English in order to stimulate innovative research and encourage debate about research in the discipline. Bringing together a range of distinguished contributors, each chapter focuses on one particular method, offering both concrete practical advice on how to utilise it and exploring some of the methodological issues that are involved in the use of that particular method. These methods include textual analysis, auto/biographical methods, discourse analysis, interviewing, visual methodologies, archival methods, quantitative analysis, ethnographic methods, oral history, creative writing as a research method, and the uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in research in English. Key Features:* Offers practical advice as well as methodological discussions for each method* Includes chapters on innovative areas such as creative writing, ICT and ethnographic methods* Provides concrete examples of how methods might be used in English research* Responds to AHRB's drive for explicit and mandatory research training for postgraduates

James L. Harner's Literary Research Guide, which Choice calls "the standard guide in the field," evaluates important reference materials in English studies. Since the publication of the first edition in 1989, tens of thousands of students and educators have used the Guide as an aid to scholarly research. In the new edition Harner has added entries describing resources published since May 2001 and has revised nearly half the entries from the fourth edition. The fifth edition contains more than 1,000 entries, which discuss an additional 1,555 books, articles, and electronic resources and cite 723 reviews. Readers of earlier editions will notice the inclusion of substantially more electronic resources, particularly reliable sites sponsored by academic institutions and learned societies, to account for the proliferation of bibliographic databases, text archives, and other online resources. This edition also features a new section on cultural studies.

This series captures the language spoken on America's main streets and country roads, words and phrases passed along within homes and communities, from east to west, north to south, childhood to old age. Built upon an unprecedented survey of spoken English across America and bolstered by extensive historical research, DARE preserves the language with all its idioms and peculiarities.

The only historical dictionary of slang -- spanning three hundred years of slang use in America.

"Since the days of slavery, when the conversations of black slaves served as the classic example of a secret tongue, a kind of "home talk" in the sense that it was not meant for listeners beyond the nest, to the 1980s and '90s and the expressions of rap and hip-hop, the evolution of African-American slang from private to public language has irrevocably influenced American culture and speech. Illuminating this vibrant language, Juba to Jive offers a comprehensive collection of terms, from the oldest to the most modern, as well as clear straightforward definitions of words, phrases, and expressions, with many examples in context; approximate date of each term's arrival into the language; modifications of meanings as the terms entered the mainstream; cross-references to similar terms; linguistic roots, from onomatopoetic sources to rhyming jargon; and shifts in word forms and grammatical usage." "Juba to Jive is the only up-to-date record of this rich, ever-evolving language born in the African-American community and permeating every aspect of our culture."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

From the silver screen to the Great White Way, small community theatres to television sets, the musical has long held a special place in America's heart and history. Now, in The Oxford Companion to the American Musical, readers who flocked to the movies to see An American in Paris or Chicago, lined up for tickets to West Side Story or Rent, or crowded around their TVs to watch Cinderella or High School Musical can finally turn to a single book for details about them all. For the first time, this popular subject has an engaging and authoritative book as thrilling as the performances themselves. With more than two thousand entries, this illustrated guide offers a wealth of information on musicals, performers, composers, lyricists, producers, choreographers, and much more. Biographical entries range from early stars Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, and Mae West to contemporary show-stoppers Nathan Lane, Savion Glover, and Kristin Chenoweth, while composers Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Andrew Lloyd Webber all have articles, and the choreography of Bob Fosse, Tommy Tune, and Debbie Allen receives due examination. The plays and films covered range from modern hits like Mamma Mia! and Moulin Rouge! to timeless classics such as Yankee Doodle Dandy and Show Boat. Also, numerous musicals written specifically for television appear throughout, and many entries follow a work-Babes in Toyland for example-as it moves across genres, from stage, to film, to television. The Companion also includes cross references, a comprehensive listing of recommended recordings and further reading, a useful chronology of all the musicals described in the book, plus a complete index of Tony Award and Academy Award winners. Whether you are curious about Singin' in the Rain or Spamalot, or simply adore The Wizard of Oz or Grease, this well-researched and entertaining resource is the first place to turn for reliable information on virtually every aspect of the American musical.

A distinguished international assembly of 291 philosophers have contributed over 2,000 entries to the second edition of The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. This comprehensive and authoritative reference addresses key concepts, doctrines, schools of thought, discussion of practical issues, individual thinkers and philosophical terms as applied to a fascinating range of current topics. With over 300 new entries discussing topical issues such as terrorism, corporate responsibility, animal consciousness, cloning and globalisation, and contributions from world-famous thinkers including Peter Singer, Simon Blackburn, and Isaiah Berlin, the new edition of Oxford Companion to Philosophy serves as a stimulating introduction for general readers and as an indispensable guide for students.