English 3692
Catalog description: A comprehensive history of Black writing in America from 1930 to the present.
Richard Wright (1908-1960). Native Son
Ann Lane Petry (1908-1997). The Street
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000). Selected poems
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
Search Strategy
Think, Plan, Find, Evaluate, Cite
Think and Plan
A key element to planning is your timeline; another is making your project manageable.
University of Minnesota assignment calculator: http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator
Owl at Purdue: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
Getting Started
First you have to know something about your topic. After that, you can decide on the "angle" of your paper, e.g., political, historical, literary, etc. Before you start looking for background information on your topic in the library or on the web, consider using one or more of these strategies:
- Be sure you understand the assignment (remember the first step on the assignment calculator?). If necessary, seek clarification from your professor or classmates.
- Think about what you already know about the topic.
- Use a pre-writing strategy, e.g., brainstorming, free writing, clustering, etc.) to help you to discover what you know and want to know about your topic.
- Talk to your professor, classmates, friends, and family about the topic.
- Look for ways to make the topic interesting to you.
- Figure out a system for tracking the information you find as you research your topic.
- Ask questions about the topic that will guide your initial research.
An Overview
Online sources: Wikipedia, Britannica Online. The challenge with Wikipedia is its instability. VERIFY data you find there.
Example: Ann Petry. Note the tenuous nature of the information.
Print Sources: Search the Catalog
Example: A word search for "african american authors" limited by "reference collection" (NOTE: use word searches to access subject headings.)
You get approximately 50 results. You can refine your search or you can scroll through. You can also try another search, e.g., just for "authors."
Once you have an overview, you think some more.
Brainstorming Process and Questions
Example: Richard Wright
NOTE: There is a general controversy over whether a written work should be considered on its own or whether a reader/critic should consider the life of the author as part of the analysis. For my brainstorming, I include the idea of considering the author.
How does someone go from writing a Book-of-the-Month Club selection that flies off the shelves to being penniless in Paris and unable to complete some of his works?
What would I find if I looked at Black Boy, his 1945 autobiography, and, possibly, the sequel, American Hunger (1977), and compared them to what I find in Native Son. Keep in mind the issue of fact vs. fiction in autobiography.
What might be the effect on his writing of Native Son of the following:
his harsh, poverty-stricken, and abused childhood
his membership in the Communist Party from 1932 to 1944
his sources, e.g., 1938 criminal case of Robert Nixon, the speech by Boris A. Max that is based on Clarence Darrow's defense of Leopold and Loeb
Other considerations:
his Paris stage (post-Native Son)
mentoring James Baldwin, who later criticized the tactics of Native Son in his essay "Everybody's Protest Novel."
founding of the Paris Review with George Plimpton and others
his existential connections: are they reflected in his earlier work or is this something that developed only after he went to Paris?
Did he eventually lose touch with his inspiration by staying in Paris?
Paris Blues (movie) - no direct relation to Wright, but it came out in 1961, starred Paul Newman and Sydney Poitier, and, among other themes, dealt with an African American character who decides to return to the U.S. from Paris to participate in addressing racial injustice.
Searched the catalog for "Film Adaptations," limiter "reference collection."
Adaptations of Native Son:
1941-43: stage adaptation directed by Orson Welles played on Broadway.
1951: first film version adapted by Pierre Chenal and Richard Wright, directed by Chenal. Wright played Bigger Thomas. - 3 year project - disaster
1986 version, directed by Jerrold Freedman, adapted by Richard Wesley. Oprah Winfrey played Bigger's mother. In this version, the text was changed (eliminated Bigger's murder of Bessie to reinforce the idea that Bigger is a mild-mannered victim - story ended up with "no controversy, dialectic, and philosophical significance," according to one reviewer - from Encyclopedia of Novels into Film by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh, 1999.
Find and Evaluate
The Web
google, dogpile, etc.
blogs, wikis
EVALUATE!!! - http://libresos.pbwiki.com/Evaluation
Databases
Some Principles about Databases
- a platform is not a database
- a database needs a common theme
- an index is not full text, although full text may well be included partially or fully as part of an index
- the catalog is an index
- databases in A-Z list are a mix of indexes, full text, and partial full text
- boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) help to expand or contract results
- adjacency is not the same as using AND
- synonyms help you to find different results
- JSTOR and ProjectMUSE are not indexes - they are databases with full text of selected journals - These may be where you search "after" you search indexes, but may not be the best places to start, partly because they are not generally as comprehensive as indexes and also because they have an embargo period.
- No results can be useful.
Databases to consider:
Academic Search Premier - a general database
Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLA bibliography) - "the" database for English language & literature
Any subject index/database that provides companion information - History, Philosophy, Psychology
Modern Language Association International Bibliography
Search strings for the topic "Native Son and Films"
Richard Wright AND Native Son AND film, limiter 20th century.
Note the role of SFX (see result 11)
Synonyms for film: cinema, movie, cine
Search strings for "Ann Petry"
Ann AND Petry: gives you results for the word Ann and the word Petry, but not necessarily together.
Ann Petry: gives you results for the words Ann Petry when adjacent to one another.
How could you narrow your results?
Ann Petry AND The Street
Search strings for "James Baldwin"
A search for just "James Baldwin" resulted in 636 results (on February 25, 2008), so you need to narrow it down through some angle. If I change "select a field (optional)" to "SU Subjects-All," I reduce my results to 603, which is fewer, but still more than I'd like. So I tried the following searches, returning my "select a field (optional)" to its neutral setting. That means I'll get works by those authors and about those authors because I might want to see if there were articles written by these authors as well as works about them.
James Baldwin AND Richard Wright
(if you want to study their relationship)
49 results on Feb. 25, 2008
James Baldwin AND Paris
(if you want to study the Paris years)
7 results on Feb. 25, 2008
James Baldwin AND Langston Hughes
(if you wanted to look at that intersection or comparison)
8 results on Feb. 25, 2008
If you look at the results from these three different searches, you will see some overlap, but also some differences.
You might think that there would be examples of articles that just used the word "Baldwin" and didn't include the word James. Searching just the word "Baldwin," there were 1,297 results (on Feb. 25, 2008) and it may be true that a few of those results might be for James Baldwin, but there would also be results for anyone else named Baldwin, especially if you didn't "specify a field." If you enter Baldwin without specifying a field, you will get Baldwin as subject, but also Baldwin as author. Examples of those authors are Baldwin, Debra or Baldwin, Barry. So, you get a lot of "noise," which isn't helpful.
Some points to note about any results
1. Not all items will have an SFX link. [Article (or chapter) in a book.]
You need to search the catalog for the book.
If it's not there, try LINK+.
2. You can combine databases. If you combine your search in MLA IB and Academic Search Premier, you reduce your limiter options. You may get more results, but you may also get more "noise."
Features: email, SFX, Find More Like This, Help (for the platform not the database itself), Subject Headings
for some information about the database, see the MLA web site (http://www.mla.org/bibliography). You can get more details about the scope of coverage, for example.
Other Useful Databases
America: History and Life - HUAC, McCarthy era - NOTE: avoid dissertations
Philosopher's Index - different platform - existentialism
PsycInfo
JSTOR/ProjectMUSE
Using Google Scholar:
- set your preferences
- remember what you're searching - Cal State East Bay or Cal State East Bay combined with Open World Cat
- leave time because if you find something in Open World Cat, you'll likely need time to order it through LINK+ or Interlibrary Loan
Refining Your Topic
1. Make an initial working outline
2. Search and refine more.
3. Write a draft
- write without looking at your notes, then go back and fill in gaps
- try not to worry about length: write it first, then adjust to longer or shorter. If you focus on length, you tend not to focus on topic.
Citation
Email as much as you can to yourself, but you may not get everything that way, so use some other tools:
- "Citing Resource and Style Guide" on the library web site (http://www.library.csueastbay.edu/citing.htm#research)
- http://www.zotero.com
Remember to ASK if you need help
Library Home Page: http://www.library.csueastbay.edu
Librarians by Subject: http://www.library.csueastbay.edu/librarians.htm
Ask a Librarian: http://www.library.csueastbay.edu/staff/ask_main.htm (the “space” in the URL is an underline)
Aline Soules, Library Faculty
LI 2031 (on the Hayward campus)
510-885-4596
aline.soules (at) csueastbay.edu
A good researcher is curious and persists!!
copyright Aline Soules 2008
under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/
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