English 317

Bibliographic Research Assignment #3

For this assignment, we will be examining two literary research databases to demonstrate how you would begin work on a literature review for a single author. Those databases are the MLA International Bibliography and WorldCat. Both are accessible through the AUC library electronic resources (databases) website. Go to http://www.auctr.edu to begin your search.

Your task will be to run searches in both databases to compile a potential bibliography of resources on your assigned author. See the list at the end of this document for your assignment. In each database, you must at least run the searches listed below. These four search parameters are suggested as the minimum to procure as much information as possible. You may run other searches you deem appropriate.

Assigned author name as subject

Assigned author name as keyword

Individual assigned work as subject

A topic of your choosing (e.g., race, gender, class) and author name as keyword  

Confine your search to the years 1993-2008. Once you have run these searches, you will narrow your bibliographic list to what you consider to be the top 20 sources on this author. You will then produce a bibliography that includes a listing of these sources in proper MLA citation format. The bibliography will include the following:

1. Introduction: Preface your bibliography with an introductory paragraph that describes how you approached your search. Include the following:
   1. Describe the search parameters you used and their basic results. For each search parameter, how many entries did you pull up? Did you find a lot of cross-over between MLA and WorldCat or did you notice different resources in each? Were there certain searches that were more productive than others? Was there too much information or too little? How did you decide upon the topic you chose to research?
   2. Provide a rationale for your choices. How did you decide upon the sources you included? For example, did there appear to be a great deal of focus on a particular topic that suggested it would be important? Were there authors you recognized from your “Recent Studies in Restoration and 18^th-Century Literature” search? Were there titles that simply caught your eye?
2. Bibliography: Organize your bibliography alphabetically and in accordance with proper MLA format. At the end of each citation, note whether the AUC library owns that particular journal or book. This information will assist your peers in knowing whether they need to interlibrary loan an item that looks like it would useful in their research.    

Submit your write-up to the “Assignments” section on WebCT in a Word 97-2003 compatible format by the due date.

Assigned Author and Work

Laura Allen:                              Frances Burney, Evelina

Kyla Berry:                               Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

Jessica Boyd:                            Aphra Behn, Oroonoko

Yakesha Cooper:                     Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders   

Irene Delilly:                             Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

Serena Holloman:                     Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the

                                                Life of Olaudah Equiano

Kristen McNeil:                        Samuel Johnson, The Rambler and The Idler

Ashley Mims:                            Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal

Dominique Robertson:                John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera

Whitney Robinson:                    Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the Tatler and

                                                the Spectator

Krystle Sherman:                     Margaret Cavendish, Poems and Fancies

Fairren Thompson:                    John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel

Tiffany Tolliver:                         Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock

Raquel Washington:                  William Cowper, “The Task”

Kara Yates:                             Eliza Haywood, The Female Spectator

MAIN PROJECT PAGE