• How to Find Books
• Circulating Books
• Reserve Books
• Databases
• Other Research Guides | Class Assignment

How to Find Books

When searching for books in the GCC Library, use the online catalog. This database tells you what resources the Library owns, where they're located, if they're available, etc. Most of our books are published in print, although we do also have a growing electronic book collection. When you're looking at a book's record, look under "location" to see if the book is a print or electronic publication, or if it is a web site, rather than a book.

If you're searching by subject, but don't find anything, try doing a keyword search. This is a broader search, which could pick up something helpful. If you find a title that looks promising, take a look at the full record and review the subject headings listed. These terms can be used when doing a subject search. Unlike Internet search engines or databases, the online catalog uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to describe a book's contents, so if you're not using the correct term, you may come up with no hits—even if the library owns books on your topics. If in doubt, ask a reference librarian.

Circulating & Electronic Books

Below is a list of circulating titles related to your topic. Circulating books can be checked out of the library for two weeks and are located upstairs on the third floor of the library. If you’re looking for one of the books below, first check the online catalog to make sure it's available.

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley: A Collection of Critical Essays
823.912 H986ku

Aldous Huxley: A Study of the Major Novels
823.912 H986bo

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
Electronic Book

Brave New World Revisited
301.152 H986b, 1965

Cyrano de Bergerac

The Play: A Critical Anthology
808.82 P722

Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Electronic Book

Willy Loman
Electronic Book

Great Expectations

Student Companion to Charles Dickens
Electronic Book
*Section on Great Expectations

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations
Electronic Book

Great Expectations: A Novel of Friendship
823.8 D548ho

1984

Literature Suppressed On Political Grounds
363.31 K18L, 2006

George Orwell and the Origins of 1984
823.912 O79st

Nineteen Eighty Four: Past, Present and Future
823.912 O79re

Much Ado About Nothing

Critical Companion to William Shakespeare: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work
822.33 BB789c

Readings On the Comedies of William Shakespeare
822.33 DS527swi

Shakespeare’s Comedie  Comprehensive Research and Study Guide
Electronic Book

The World Must Be Peopled: Shakespeare’s Comedies of Forgiveness
Electronic Book

Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Tyrannus:: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge
882.01 S454o, 2001

Sophocles’ Oedipus Plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, & Antigone
Electronic Book

Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays
882.01 S712ob

A Raisin In the Sun

Lorraine Hansberry: Award-Winning Playwright and Civil Rights Activist
812.54 H249si

Summer and Smoke

The Cambridge companion to Tennessee Williams
812.54 C178

Critical companion to Tennessee Williams
812.54 W727he

The Tennessee Williams Encyclopedia
812.54 T297

Tennessee Williams
Electronic Books

Web Sites

http://www.42explore.com/litcrit.htm
An index to internet sites for literary criticism.

http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/
Links to credible literary criticism on the Internet.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_lit.html
Information on how to create thesis statements for literary-themed topics.

http://lib.colostate.edu/research/english/litcritbooks.html
Methods of finding literary criticism in books about an author using Library of Congress Subject Headings.

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/
Literary criticism on the Internet organized by periods and ethnicities.

http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/table.html
PAL (Perspectives in American Literature website).  Lists authors of historical significance with brief bios about their works.  Contains some full-text essays.

Databases

Use the subscription databases below to search for articles and research reports on your topic. These databases are available to students from the library, as well as from any of the computer labs on campus. You can also access them remotely from home; however, you will be promted to enter a login and a password before you're able to begin searching (see Off-Campus Article Database Search Login and Password Information for details if you need help).

Literature Resource Center Description Searchable database of criticism, explication, biographies, bibliographies, work overviews, Web sites, and reading lists. Covers the work of more than 100,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers. Full-text. · guide to searching literature research center

ProQuest Description ProQuest Information and Learning provides access to information from magazines, newspapers, journals, out-of-print books, dissertations, and scholarly collections in various formats. As of 2007, ProQuest has agreements with over 9.000 publishers worldwide. Its archive includes more than 5.5 billion pages of information, spanning 500 years of scholarship, in formats that range from print to microform to digital. Known for its strength in business and economics, general reference, humanities, and scientific/technical/medical content, ProQuest Information and Learning serves academic, public, corporate, and K-12 libraries, in addition to K-12 classrooms and higher education students and faculty · guide to searching proquest

Research Guides

Avoiding Plagiarism Guide Tips on how to avoid plagiarism when writing your research paper.

MLA Style Guide for Citing Print Resources Quick reference sheet to citing print resources in MLA format.

MLA Style Guide for Citing Electronic Sources Quick reference sheet to citing electronic resources in MLA format.

Evaluating Web Pages Guide An overview of the questions you must ask when considering if a web resource is appropriate to use in a research paper.

Annotated Bibliography Guide - Coming Soon!

English 102 Research Assignment

TERM PAPER (600-800 words)

From the options below, choose one work from Column A and one work from Column B. Compare and contrast a character from Column A with a character of parallel importance from Column B. (You may study a novel character alongside a play character, if you wish.) Focus in particular on the character’s ability—or lack of ability—to think critically. Make explicit use of at least two items on the list “Some Qualities of a Critical Thinker.” Present a thesis which applies a concrete idea to both characters. Support your thesis with numerous references and quotes from the readings.

Thesis due Wed. 4/26 A single statement that identifies your readings and encompasses your main idea. It must be approved by the instructor. (Five points will be deducted for a late thesis.)

Paper due Wed. 5/17 Type it—double spaced.

Research: You are required to consult at least two outside sources of criticism and use at least one passage from each to support your ideas. Whether it is paraphrased or quoted directly, each passage must be cited using the MLA style of documentation. This means a parenthetical citation within the body of your paper and a “Works Cited” page at the end (not a footnote) giving the full publication data on the source. Consult any English 101 handbook for the proper form of MLA documentation. While secondary sources (outside criticism) must be cited and documented, primary sources (your chosen novels and plays) need not be. Direct quotes are not counted in the 600-800 word limit.

COLUMN A	COLUMN B
Novels	Novels
Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations	A Clockwork Orange
Orwell, George: 1984
Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World
Plays	Plays
Rostand, Edmond: Cyrano de Bergerac	Oedipus Rex
Williams, Tennessee: Summer and Smoke	Inherit the Wind
Miller, Arthur: Death of a Salesman	The Zoo Story
Hansberry, Lorraine: A Raisin In the Sun	Much Ado About Nothing

 

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