American Authors - Resources for Research

NAME: DeAnna Bradley

SCHOOL: Anthony Wayne High School

WORKSHOP LOCATION: Sylvania, Timberstone Junior High

TITLE OF COMPANION ACTION PLAN: American Authors and Their Influences

GRADE LEVEL: 11^th grade

CURRICULUM/SUBJECT AREA: English

SPECIFIC TOPIC: American Literature – Literary Influences

CONTENT INFORMATION

The Pathfinder provides junior students doing American literature research projects with a list of books, videos, electronic resources and selected web sites that will assist them in locating information on either literary topics or American writers. Specifically, this document was created to aid students engaged in locating information on the major influences appearing in the most well known American authors works. Because there is so much information available to students in the area of critically examining topics of American literature, students often become confused about where to begin or what resources are most appropriate for an assignment. It is hoped that this document with accompanying instruction provided by the Media Specialist, will help guide students beginning a literary research investigation.

DEWEY AREAS

For this project, you will find the Dewey areas below in both the reference section and circulating sections of the high school Media Center and the public library , will house resources useful for information on your author: Notice the arrangement in distinct number areas that correspond to the genre.

American Literature -- 810-819

810 - American Literature History

811 - American Poets and Poetry

812 - American Drama and Dramatists

813 - American Fiction (Novels, Short Stories) and Authors

817 - American Humor & Satire and Humorists (Ex: Mark Twain)

AW Media Center - American Literature Reference Works

REF 810.9 MAG - Magill’s Survey of American Literature –

Good first reference -

Alphabetically by writer’s name - biographical information - critical overview of writer’s style - critical introduction to major works - Contains information on authors, poets and dramatists

REF 810.9 WRI - Writers for Young Adults -

Critical analysis articles on some of the more popular American writers of YA novels - Includes Walt Whitman, Hemingway,

Twain and others -- Check spine label for names of authors covered in each volume

Gale’s Student Series:

REF 808.2 DRA - Drama for Students

REF 809.1 POE - Poetry for Students

REF 813 NOV - Novels for Students

Critical analysis of individual works and the author of the work - - Very detailed

and with very specific information on both subjects

REF 810 AME - American Writers - Critical analysis of writers and their works –

Signed articles with extensive bibliographies - Check spine for names of authors covered in a volume

REF 810.9 - Dictionary of Literary Biography

(Indexed in the last volume of REF 809.1 POE -Poetry Criticism)

Critical literary histories of authors and their works

Signed articles with good bibliographies

REF 810.9 CON - Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography

Not as complete contents as the above resource

REF 809.1- Poetry Criticism

Criticism of the works of significant poets (American, British and World)

Check the comprehensive index in the last volume

Here are some examples of specialized American Literature reference works

REF 810.9 MOD - Modern American Women Writers

REF 810.9 MAJ - Major Black American Writers

REF 810.9 AFR - African American Writers

(Check the Reference collection for more titles)

Biographical References

REF 920 DOC - Dictionary of American Biography

REF 920 SCR - Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives

Both these series are the most extensive biographical references on d deceased and notable Americans . The articles are signed (remember how to cite

correctly).

REF 920 CUR - Current Biography - American and world figures - Deceased and living

REF 920 - Wilson Author Series - Such titles as: American Authors 1600-1900 andTwentieth Century Authors

Circulation Collection:

Media Center has titles in the following series on writers and their works:

Bloom’s Bio Critiques

Bloom’s Major Short Story Writers

Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers

Critical Essays on ...

Literary Masters.

Greenwood Press - Literature in Context : Understanding....

Selected Companions to Classic Writers

Reader’s Companions to the Novel

Readings on ....... - Authors and individual titles

Twayne Author Series

Understanding Great Literature

Major Literary Characters - Critical analysis of individual characters from plays and novels

Check AWHS Media Center’s online catalog at:

http://infohio.nwoca.org/html/english_multilis/login/AWHS/welcome.html

Search by entering the last name, first name of the writer and then search “Subject” to locate what books and videos we have about the person.

Enter a series title and search on “Series” for any of the above series titles.

Electronic Resources:

InfOhio Resources: http://www.infohio.org/- Grades 7-12 Resources

American Annals - digitized primary sources - documents - images - video

American National Biography - Extensive biographies on deceased Americans with web links and links to articles in Oxford Reference on Line (InfOhio product)

Britannica On-line - Articles - Web Links - Journal articles

Oxford Reference on Line - Search all Oxford resources at once

American Memory - primary source documents digitized from the Library of Congress- Easy to search

AW Electronic Resources:

Americana - http://go.grolier.com/

Articles -- Links to selected web sites on the topic searched -- Periodical & Journal articles on topic

LITFINDER - http://www.litfinder.com/

Poetry and short stories and information on the poets and writers

Biographies Illustrated Plus - http://hwwilsonweb.com/

Biographies, reference articles and journal articles on famous persons (American

and worldwide) both deceased and living

Research Web sites: