Background Information
Finding background information is an important part of the Research Process!
Why do background research?
Here are some databases to help you get started!
Your research starter guide! 3 million entries from notable subject encyclopedias, handbooks, guides, companions and readers covering over 80 major subject disciplines and more than 6 million research concepts
JSTOR is an online library of journals, academic ebooks, and primary sources. The Text Analyzer is a new way to search JSTOR: upload your own text or document, Text Analyzer processes the text to find the most significant topics and then recommends similar content on JSTOR.
Provides a broad spectrum of research info on thousands of authors and their works. More than 36,000 plot summaries, synopses, and work overviews. More than 250,000 author bios. More than 7,400 classic novels. More than 460 literary journals.
Gale Literary Sources brings together all of Gale's literary databases into one seamlessly cross-searchable research and study environment. Whether you're researching authors and their works, literary movements or genres, or trying to find book reviews of bestsellers, you can search across all of your library's Gale literary databases to find full text of literary works, journal articles, literature criticism and analysis, reviews, author biographies, and a rich collection of expertly written work overviews.
Where can you find background information?
Reference sources are useful research tools that you can use to help you find authoritative, background information.
Remember!
Information you find during this part of the research process is meant to help you identify key search terms that can help you search for scholarly sources.
This page was created by Magen Nosworthy (Fall 2018 ENGL 489)