COMP111 Professor Luciano: Home

Quick Catalog Search

These library databases have electronic books on literary subjects:

Purdue OWL MLA Guide 

Bucks Citation Guides

Just a quick reminder about Boolean Operators?

Depending on the direction of your paper, you may need to consult other databases. The library databases page has a drop down menu that allows you to narrow the list of databases according to subject matter. Open up the drop down menu by clicking on the word "Any" in the box next to where it says "Show Only" at the top of the page. Then select your subject area. 

For your convenience, here it is in black and blue:

The main databases you want to use are EBSCOhost (Academic Search Elite and MLA  Int'l Bibliography), LION, JSTOR, and maybe Salem Literature. I recommend that you start with EBSCO because you can most easily refine your search there. Here's my famous strategy for Literature Criticism Seconday Source finding:

1. Choose Academic Search Elite and MLA Int'l Bibliography from the first list and click on continue,

2. The search screen has three empty boxes. Make them look like this:

Angelou, Maya (Make. Sure. You. Spell. Her. Name. Correctly.)

AND "caged bird" (or other distinctive words from another title. if there are more than one, put them in quotes to keep them together)

AND criticism

3. Ignore the drop-down boxes to the right of the formerly empty boxes. If you leave them alone you will be doing a Googlish keyword search and that is what we want.

4. Ignore most of the stuff beneath the thick horizontal green line. Check the boxes next to Full-text Only and Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journals to make sure your results come from the appropriate sources.

5. Click SEARCH and you should get a nice list of stuff. Click on the title for more info about the article including other keywords you could use and a short abstract or summary (this is not the article and can't be used as a source). Click on PDF Full-Text or HTML Full-Text to see and read the actual article.

6. Use this same strategy or a variation of it for the other databases I mentioned. Exceptions:

• When you search LION (Literature Online Reference Edition), you should click the word 'Criticism' on the upper left of the first page. This will bring you to the correct screen and you do not have to type the actual word 'criticism' as you did in EBSCO. Type your author, last name, first and your distinctive keyword(s) where prompted in the empty boxes.
• Salem Literature is more like a collection of ebooks with collected secondary sources (literature criticism). Type in only your author's name to see if they are included, and if you get lots of results yell "Eureka!" and type a distinctive keyword in the empty boxes to the left to narrow your search.

Good luck.

Margaret

Salem Literature is a collection of ebooks about literature criticism. Not all authors and works are covered here, but if your selected writer is, you'll find a plethora of good, scholarly information. Watch this quick video to learn how to search this collection.

Call the Reference Desk:

Newtown: 215-968-8013

Lower Bucks 267-685-4825

Upper Bucks 215-258-7721

Look here for instructions.

Plagiarism is serious. More information can be found on the Academic Integrity Page from Bucks County Community College. 

TED Talks: https://www.ted.com/talks Select "More" to expand your search criteria choices. 

PBS interviews: http://www.pbs.org/ Use the Search Box in the upper right side of the page. Search your topic with the word interview. (examples: Kate Chopin interview ,  fast food interview , social media interview) 

National Public Radio podcasts: http://www.npr.org/podcasts/ Click on the magnifying glass in the tiny circle to open up the search box. Type in your topic/keywords and click on the magnifying glass to search. In your results page you can further narrow down your search.