LibGuides: English 10: Step 4: Secondary Sources & Explanatory Bibliography

What are secondary sources?

Research scholarly books and journals, both print and electronic, to gather critical perspectives on the literature you read. During this phase, you will compare what scholars think is important about the work with what you think is important and begin to synthesize both by taking careful notes.

Secondary sources include:

critical and analytical essays,
book reviews,
author interviews, etc

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OhioLINK is a consortium of Ohio's college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio. The OhioLINK catalog has an academic focus. Books need to be requested with your Public Library card and then will arrive at your local branch.

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and many more!

Many of the books, like Social Issues in Literature are also available electronically!

Be sure to look in Twayne's Author Series too!

English Research Databases

Bloom's Literary Reference Online This link opens in a new window This resource contains more than 20,000 critical essays from over 500 literary journals and 2,300 scholarly and critical books, including 700 titles published by Bloom's Literary Criticism and Facts On File. Also included in the database are more than 13,000 biographies, 45,000 character entries, 5,000 synopses of literary works and hundreds of images and videos.
Explora for Grades 9-12 This link opens in a new window Learn more about your favorite subject. Read magazines, newspapers, biographies, primary sources, country information. Find images for class projects and learn vocabulary.
Gale Artemis Literary Sources This link opens in a new window Searches Literature Resource Center, LitFinder and Twayne's
JSTOR This link opens in a new window FROM HOME: LOGIN UNDER THE MYJSTOR TAB. The JSTOR archive holds the complete digitized back run or core scholarly journals, starting with the very first issues, some dating as far back as the 1600's. New Titles and disciplines are being added regularly.
As of September 2006, 641 journals are included. The entire JSTOR archive consists of the Arts & Sciences Collections, the Health & General Sciences Collection, and the Biological Sciences Collection . The newest 1 to 10 years of a journal are not included because of the "moving wall" policy. "The "moving wall" represents the time period between the last issue available in JSTOR and the most recently published issue of a journal. Publishers determine the moving wall length in their license agreements with JSTOR. Moving walls may range from zero to ten years, and those with walls from zero to seven years participate in our revenue sharing program." This policy gives "publishers protection from the threat of lost revenues if recent issues were available in the archive."
Literary Reference Center This link opens in a new window Information on thousands of authors and their works. Includes all types of literature and time periods.
Literature Online: American & English Literature This link opens in a new window Full-text searchable poetry, drama, and fiction classics.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Full-text articles from scholarly journals and literary magazines are combined with critical essays, work and topic overviews, full-text works, biographies, and more to provide a wealth of information on authors, their works, and literary movements. Researchers at all levels will find the information they need, with content covering all genres and disciplines, all time periods and all parts of the world.
LITFINDER (Gale) This link opens in a new window International in scope, LitFinder covers all time periods and contains a wealth of primary literature content. This includes approximately 140,000 full-text poems, 800,000 poem citations and excerpts, 7,100 full-text short stories and novels, 3,800 full-text essays, 2,000 full-text speeches and 1,700 full-text plays. It also includes biographies, work summaries, photographs and a glossary.
Research in Context: Upper This link opens in a new window Includes full-text newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, and many more. Thousands of video and audio selections, from archival film clips to broadcast video, NPR, and more. Topic-searchable image galleries. Interactive maps
Login with your Google account to create an option to save articles
Research in Context: Upper This link opens in a new window Includes full-text newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, and many more. Thousands of video and audio selections, from archival film clips to broadcast video, NPR, and more. Topic-searchable image galleries. Interactive maps
Login with your Google account to create an option to save articles
Twayne's Author Series This link opens in a new window This eBook resource features the content of nearly 900 books from six print series — U.S. Authors Series Classic, English Writers Series Classic, World Authors Series Classic, Masterwork Studies, Studies in Short Fiction, and updated editions of U.S. Authors, World Authors and English Authors.

Academic Journals

Many college libraries subscribe to a wide variety of academic journals, which contain academic articles published by university professors. Some of the citations you find may require you to look in academic journals. If you find that an article you need is contained in an academic journal, speak with our librarians about getting a copy of the source through interlibrary loan or through your public library card privileges.

Academic Search Premier

JSTOR

Our top 5! (Highly Recommended by Mrs. Bloom and Ms. Whitt)

Bloom's Literary Reference Online This link opens in a new window This resource contains more than 20,000 critical essays from over 500 literary journals and 2,300 scholarly and critical books, including 700 titles published by Bloom's Literary Criticism and Facts On File. Also included in the database are more than 13,000 biographies, 45,000 character entries, 5,000 synopses of literary works and hundreds of images and videos.
Gale Artemis Literary Sources This link opens in a new window Searches Literature Resource Center, LitFinder and Twayne's
Literary Reference Center This link opens in a new window Information on thousands of authors and their works. Includes all types of literature and time periods.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Note: the login for this database is the OPPOSITE of our regular logins.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

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Writing Resources

Diana Hacker's Research and Documentation Online
This section of The Bedford Handbook companion site will take you to advice about finding sources in different disciplines and documenting sources in MLA, APA, Chicago, and CBE styles.
Writing Center at Perdue (OWL)
Offers over 200 free resources including:
Writing and Teaching Writing
Research
Grammar and Mechanics
Style Guides
ESL (English as a Second Language)
Job Search and Professional Writing