English 701: Course Objectives

As the title "Methods and Materials of Research" suggests, the
course's objectives are two-fold but overlapping:

     1. Methods: To learn how to answer typical questions asked
     by researchers in English literature.

     2. Materials: To become familiar with  typical research
     materials used by researchers in English literature.

As an introduction to literary research at the graduate level,
this course focuses on representative, useful, recurrent research
methods and materials.  It does not attempt to offer a detailed
examination of analytic bibliography or other highly specialized
subdisciplines. The exercises, written assignments, and
examinations address the kinds of questions that every researcher
in English literature faces repeatedly.

Typical Research Problems          Typical Research Materials

Find a standard edition of         Library catalogs, review 
an author's works                  articles, national
                                   bibliographies, encyclopedias,
                                   textbooks
                                   

Find a standard biography          Encyclopedias, biographical
                                   dictionaries, reviews, surveys
                                   of research

Find the location of a             Annotated editions, guides to
manuscript                         scholarly collections, Web
                                   sites
                                   
                                   
Find an authoritative              Periodical indexes,
treatment of a topic               bibliographies of
                                   bibliographies

Find and use a specialized         Annotated bibliographies,
reference tool                     reference guides,
                                   concordances, full-text
                                   databases

Identify a leading authority       Reviews, review articles,
on a topic or author               surveys of research

Find or compile a topic            Periodical indexes, annotated
bibliography                       bibliographies

Evaluate a scholar                 Biographical reference works,
                                   reviews

Find accurate historical           Periodical indexes, newspapers
information                        
 
Study the meaning, etymology,      Specialized dictionaries
and history of individual words

Evaluate a standard reference      Reviews, indexes to reviews
work                               
 
Locate a copy of a specific        Periodical indexes, OhioLink
periodical article                 Central Catalog, OCLC database

Find specialized material,         Internet and Web resources,
including multimedia               on-line reference resources

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