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What You Need To Do First
1) Read Your Work of Literature
- Your best understanding of your work comes from your own reading and thinking
- Critical sources are intended to assist your own analysis.
- You will also be able to use critical sources much more effectively after you have acquired personal knowledge of the work.
2) Identify Your Search Terms
Usually when doing Literature Research the best (but not the only) search terms to use are:
- Title of the work
- Author’s name
- Other works by the author
- Literary movements and theories may also yield good search results depending on your topic and assignment.
Find Background and Overviews of Your Work
Find biographical and critical information on most authors, subjects, and works of literature in these databases.
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Gale Virtual Reference Library: Literature Collection
Search Gale's literature encyclopedias and series. Includes plot synopses, literary criticism, author biographies, and more. Make sure to use the search box titled "Search within Collection" in the upper left of the screen.
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