AP Indie Reading Project

Resources for Lit Crit

Resources for lit crit that might work well for this assignment:

• Literature Resource Center (Gale)

  • Authors and their works, literary movements, genres, criticism, and more.

• Novels for Students (BPL)

  • Available through the Boston Public Library. Detailed articles on dozens of frequently taught works, including a critical overview, historical context, themes, and significance. After you search this series, try a general search in their Gale Virtual Reference Library collection. Requires BPL eCard.

• JSTOR (BPL)

  • Scholarly journals from JSTOR are a great source of literary criticism. Most journals do not have access for the past three to five years ... but that's usually not a problem with lit crit. Requires BPL eCard.

  • Academic OneFile (Gale)

  • Our primary database for peer-reviewed, scholarly articles (great for literary criticism) and other periodical content, including magazines and newspapers (great for published book reviews).

• AHS Media Center Catalog

  • We have books about books! So does Robbins.

Researching Context

Other places you might go to research the biographical, historical, and cultural context of your novels include:

• Encyclopaedia Britannica School Edition

• Biography In Context (Gale)

• World History in Context (Gale)

  • Modern World History Online (Facts on File)

  • American History Online (Facts on File)

  • U.S. History in Context (Gale)

  • Gale Virtual Reference Library (Gale)

Lit Crit Online: Tips and Tricks

• Real literary criticism is a discourse between professionals, published in books and, often, scholarly journals. Start with Literature Resource Center but don't forget Academic OneFile and JSTOR (requires a BPL eCard number) for more coverage.

• Place quotation marks around the title of a work to limit search results to that exact phrase. Search engines often ignore articles and prepositions. If you search for "Of Mice and Men" in quotes you'll get the title of the book and not just results that contain the word "mice" and the word "men" somewhere in them.

• Combine search terms for more targeted results. Are you interested in every article published on The Great Gatsby, or one specific theme, character, or symbol in particular? Test combinations of terms to see what works best.

• Use the advanced search features in databases and specialized websites. One extra click upfront can save hours sifting through results. For example, try setting "article type" to literary criticism or book review, if those are options. Specialized literature websites may even allow users to search by period, theme, form, and more.

Citing Sources: Gentle Reminders

• • All library research databases have tools that make it easy to copy and paste a citation directly into your Works Cited page.

  • Our district subscription to NoodleTools makes it easy to keep track of and cite your sources.

  • The MLA Formatting and Style Guide from the Purdue Online Writing Lab is an excellent resource.

Words, Words, Words