About Sources for College English Research Papers

About Sources for College English Research Papers:

Some students might need clarification about which sources will qualify as appropriate ones for this class’s research project. The BPCC librarians are very helpful with showing students how to search the Literature Resource Center online to find critical essays, journal articles, and online books that have the topic about the literary work and/or author in question. Make sure they show you JSTOR, which is a database often used for college research in the humanities and can be searched quite easily for title and topic. ( For example: Hamlet and revenge.) You will need to first choose a topic that you are interested in and see what is out there in the research domain of literary criticism. Many of the works from 201 have literary criticism going back hundreds of years. Once you decide that your thesis idea is viable and can be backed up by the required number of appropriate sources, you can begin to organize it using the format described on the assignment document.

The page numbers referenced in the following are from the McGraw-Hill Handbook. The BPCC library has one on hand for library use (you can make copies) if you do not have one:

Evaluating sources: For information about evaluating internet sources, see pages 290 through 297. There are several handy checklists that will help you assess the relevance and reliability of a source. Wikipedia and other unverifiable sources are not acceptable, but you can use them to get ideas—for pre-research purposes—and then move on to more scholarly sources. In literary research papers, it is also not acceptable to cite unpublished papers from the internet that could very well be from another student. Student oriented study guides, like Sparknotes, are also inappropriate to cite, but can be helpful for ideas. For help understanding the difference between popular and scholarly sources, see page 264.

Citations: There are two parts to the citation–the in-text citation and the Works Cited page—and they must correlate with each other exactly. It is essential to use only the updated, ’09 MLA format and to have all available required information shown on the Works Cited page. The MLA section in the MHH has examples of both types, beginning with the in-text citations on page 343. There are a number of examples of how to cite types of sources in the body of the paper as well as a sample research paper in this section. The examples of Works Cited entries for online sources begin on page 363, with databases like the ones that you will use from the library on pages 371-372.

Quoting sources: Use a variety of methods to introduce quotes and convey your evidence. For assistance with introducing and punctuating direct quotes and examples, see pages 756-763.

Paraphrasing a source: For guidelines to and examples of paraphrasing, see pages 322-325.

Questions about when to cite: To avoid plagiarism concerns, see the MHH on pages 308-9 and the handy checklist on pages 311-312.

Keeping track of sources: Keep good notes and records of your research process. For instructions on how to create a working bibliography and annotate sources, see pages 314-320.

Other information about citations can be found on the assignment document.