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English

ENGLISH 2120: Critical Writing About Literature

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For this assignment, you are writing an interpretive essay about Jack London's The Call of the Wild. You will need to locate and use at least three secondary sources to support your argument.

This guide will help you locate sources for this assignment.

Locating General Sources

Because you each will be focusing on topics of particular interest to you, it will be essential to consider what disciplines experts may be discussing your topic.

First steps

The library catalog can be a great first step for searching. It contains all of our physical collections and much of our digital. It is multidisciplinary and contains many source types. Because it searches so many places, however, you will likely want to utilize the filters to narrow your search and make it more relevant. 

Second steps

Once you've played around in OneSearch, you might find there is a disciplinary area you want to dive more into researching. Consider looking at our list of databases by subject area and dive into a more focused search.

Locating Specific Sources

The Call of the Wild is written by Jack London. It is considered a classic and has received many accolades (this is not without some controversy, including facing being banned in some countries). It has also been adapted into many mediums over time. It offers many exciting themes to explore and analyze! 

Physical copies

Available in multiple locations in the library.

Online copies

This text is in the public domain, so you can find lots of freely available copies online.

Great place to start, if you need introductory information, definitions, or are looking for ideas to help you focus your topic. 

Physical resources

map of Rod Library 3rd Floormap of Rod Library 4th Floor

Available in library stacks. Books are shelved by topic, so browsing the area might be of interest once you find one relevant item!

For example, if I were researching Jack London's Call of the Wild. I might look up such phrases as

  • "Klondike Gold Rush"
  • Darwin AND "natural selection"
  • native AND Yukon
  • "19th Century" AND "transportation"

Online resources

Locating scholarly articles or news on the context in which your text was published can offer insight into your understanding of the story.

Scholarly Articles

News

Books and Book Chapters

Tips for searching the library catalog, OneSearch

  1. Start with an Advanced Search.
  2. Two options (try both)
    • Search the author's name as a Subject. Examples: "London, Jack"
    • Enter your author's name and add criticism. "Jack London" AND criticism 
  3. Peruse the results. Consider further narrowing using filters or additional keywords.
    • More popular and well-known authors may have the option to narrow by the Subject Criticism and Interpretation.
    • Narrow by "Peer-reviewed Journals" or "Books" to focus on specific Source Types.

Some books are available in library stacks, and books are shelved by topic, so browsing the area might be of interest once you find one relevant item! Others are available as eBooks. If you have trouble accessing either, do not hesitate to reach out for support.

map of Rod Library 3rd Floormap of Rod Library 4th Floor

Scholarly Articles

OneSearch searches many (although not all) of the library's databases. It's a great place to start, but do not be afraid of jumping into individual databases for more comprehensive results.

Article searching often requires a narrow search with multiple terms to get the information you want. Consider searching for the author AND criticism OR analysis AND the title of the work. Once you have an idea of what is out there, you might also add another search term related to the theme or lens you are analyzing.

For example: "Jack London" AND (criticism OR analysis) AND "Jack London" AND naturalism

Not fully indexed in OneSearch

OneSearch will pull MUCH of this content

MLA: Online Resources & Style Guide