EH 418/518 Nineteenth-Century British Women Authors

Effective researchers and writers understand scholarly research as joining a conversation. Literary scholarship responds to and builds upon the work of other scholars and takes into account information about historical and social context.

Your task as a researcher is to join this conversation by positioning your own argument in relation to what others have said. When researching, ask yourself:

• How do works of scholarly criticism (peer-reviewed journal articles or academic books) support my own ideas about the text? How might they complicate my ideas, and is this important?
• In order to better understand the text's historical period, what information do I need, and where can I find it?
• How do my sources fit together? Remember, different sources can be used for different parts of your argument. As a researcher and writer, you need to show how they respond to each other, and relate them to your own ideas.

Brainstorm search terms

• If a search term doesn't yield any results the first time, try different terms.
• You might need to discover more about your topic to figure out the best keywords.
• Determine synonyms, related words, and subtopics. Use these for your search.

Get targeted results by combining search terms with AND, OR, and NOT

Follow the citation trail

If you find a source that's extremely relevant to your topic, look at the bibliography and works cited to find more sources! Each source is participating in a larger conversation, so explore whether the other scholarship they're using and responding to is useful for your own research.