English : English 363 Approaches to 20th & 21st Century Fiction

*Reference sources generally contain essential, summary information, and may also be called tertiary sources.

Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (for British people)

Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition 

Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History 

The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature 

Merriam Websters Encyclopedia of Literature (is part of Gale Literature)

Gale Literature (but limit to Literary Criticism and Topic & Work Overview in ADVANCED search)

American Folklore: An Encyclopedia 

PICK

Purpose / Genre / Type Determine the type of source (book, article, website, social media post, etc.) Why and how it was created? How it was reviewed before publication? Determine the genre of the source (factual reporting, opinion, ad, satire, etc.) Consider whether the type and genre are appropriate for your information needs Information Relevance / Usefulness Consider how well the content of the source addresses your specific information needs Is it directly related to your topic? How does it help you explore a research interest or develop an argument? Creation Date Determine when the source was first published or posted Is the information in the source (including cited references) up-to-date? Consider whether newer sources are available that would add important information Knowledge-Building Consider how this source relates to the body of knowledge on the topic Does it echo other experts’ contributions? Does it challenge them in important ways? Does this source contribute something new to the conversation? Consider what voices or perspectives are missing or excluded from the conversation Does this source represent an important missing voice or perspective on the topic? Are other sources available that better include those voices or perspectives? How does this source help you to build and share your own knowledge?

 SIFT & PICK by Ellen Carey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Last updated 4/11/23.

Search the Library Catalogue with word combinations such as "american history" and dictionary. Or "african american" and authors and encyclopedia. When you find suitable results look at the Subject Headings they contain and search those that are appropriate.

Use USearch with similar terms and use the Resource Type limiter to focus on books. This will help cut out book reviews and other out-of-scope material for this assignment.