Academic Research Skills in Literary Studies

Finding and Researching a Topic

• Initial Brainstorming: Generate questions you'd like to answer and identify puzzling aspects from class discussions.

• Narrowing Down: Limit the scope to what's manageable within the available time and resources (Lynn 273).

• Basic Overview Research: Start with encyclopedias and general overviews, then proceed to self-research, considering audience, materials, purpose, and critical approach (Lynn 274-6).

• AI Tools: Use of ChatGPT and similar tools may be allowed; adhere to guidelines and document their use.

• Academic Integrity: Include a statement declaring the originality of your work and proper citation of sources.

Sources

• Using Existing Research: Understand previous interpretations to contextualize your own ideas (Lynn 276-7).

• Standards: Ensure arguments are verifiable; acknowledge subjectivity in literary criticism (Klarer 7).

• Primary Sources: Novels, poems, plays, films, etc.

• Secondary Sources: Monographs, anthologies, scholarly journals, articles, dictionaries.

Types of Sources

• Monograph: A detailed, book-length study of a single specialized topic.

• Anthology: A collection of works (poems, essays, etc.) by different authors in one book.

• Articles/Essays: Shorter secondary sources on a specific topic published in journals or collections (Klarer 174).

• Edited Collection: Essays on a topic by various scholars, compiled and edited by one or more people.

• Scholarly Journal: Regularly issued publication with peer-reviewed essays, book reviews, etc. Open-access journals exist.

• Series: Books on a similar topic or purpose by a publisher with a common title.

• Dictionary: Lists words with definitions, translations, synonyms, and etymologies.

Researching Secondary Sources

• Locations: Utilize the library, online library catalogs, and databases.

• Library Resources: Understand shelf marks for British, Irish, American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, and South African authors, as well as genres and literary theory.

• Online Catalogs: Use UBsearch for the University of Salzburg.

• Databases: DBIS provides links to academic databases. Example: Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO).

• Examples of Databases: MLA, JSTOR, Project Muse for articles and bibliographical information.

• Other Useful Sites: Archive.org, Project Gutenberg, WorldCat.

Documentation of Sources

• Record essential information to allow verification and further research (Lynn 282).

• Bibliography: Alphabetical list of all sources with necessary publication details.

Bibliographical Information

• Required Information: Author, title, publisher, and year of publication.

• Title Page & Copyright Page: Look for information in these locations.

• Journal Articles: Find details on the first page or in databases.

• Short Cuts: Copy citations from databases, use citation management software (Citavi, Endnote, Zotero), but always verify accuracy.

• Style Sheet: Follow MLA 9th edition standards.

Source Titles

• Italicize titles of books, periodicals, plays, films, and edited collections.

• Use quotation marks for articles, poems, and stories within a collection.

Book Publication Examples

• One Author: Last name, First name. Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Publisher, Year.

  • Example: Thomas, Dylan. Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices. Dent, 1966.

• Two or More Authors: Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 3rd ed., Pearson, 2004.

Additional Examples

• Scholarly Series: Regal, Martin. Tragedy. The New Critical Idiom. Routledge, 2013.

• Journal Articles: Piper, Andrew. “Rethinking the Print Object: Goethe and the Book of Everything.” PMLA, vol. 121, no. 1, 2006, pp. 124–38.

• Online Database Article: Thein, Amanda Haertling.