Guide to Researching Your Topics

In preparation for the fiction section and the historical context research, you will need to have some basic research skills beyond just going to Google or asking Wikipedia.  You should follow the basic leads given for your assigned report in the Historical Context Assignments to start your research, which includes locating peer reviewed articles through a Google Scholar search that usually must accessed through the college's database. but then utilize the discussion begun in Wednesday's or Thursday's class and then walk through this guide:

• Research Help from Modesto Junior College's Library

This can seem overwhelming at a glance, but if you think of this as a textbook, there are very few pages AND this is your primary learning objective for the next few weeks.  Furthermore, this information needs to be implemented for your final annotated bibliography and your fiction essays.  So take the time to process the information.

Make sure that you scan through ALL sections, including the short, but helpful videos, but pay CLOSE attention to sections that are especially relevant to researching your reports, such as these six areas:

2. What Are the Different Types of Information? in Understand Information
3. What Types of Sources are There? in Understand Information, including the link to Selecting Sources from the University of Texas, Arlington Libraries

2. Find Books in Find Useful Information
3. Find Articles in Find Useful Information
4. Find Web Resources in Find Useful Information

• Note that all the references to databases and catalogs are for Modesto Junior College.  See the links below for Santa Fe Library's links for literary and historical research resources.  If you are NOT sure which resource to use after going through the guide above, come see me.
•  Some of the research assigned topics are based more on the literary aspects of a work, so you should consult the ENC1102 Library Guide for an overview of
• Literary Criticism Databases 
• Literary Criticism Books 
• Many of the research topics are based on US History, so consult the library's guide for AMH2020
• If you have never used any of the online library resources, make sure you view the short video Tutorials

and finally, before you settle on using something, make sure it is credible by reading MJC Library's

Evaluate Your Sources, including the cheesy but useful link to Credible Sources Count! from Vaughan Memorial Library

Although you should have a working bibliography prior to presenting your findings to the class, a formal ANNOTATED bibliography needs to be submitted to Turnitin by the end of the fiction section.  Instructions for what to prepare can be found in the Criteria for Historical/Cultural Context Research.