A Scholarly Conversation

For sustained and deeper literary criticism, find relevant scholarly articles in library databases.

• Think of scholarship as a conversation - a conversation between critic, text, and other critics.
• Build your own conversation, integrating sources and voices that support or lend themselves in some way to your original analysis.

The key step is to limit to Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Sources (if articles) to find scholarship. And then, be sure to assess! Book reviews in scholarly journals don't count as scholarship. 

The image below show how to limit to scholarly journal articles in the library's databases using the built-in tools to limit by source.

(click on image to enlarge)

Sample Searches and Search Tips

What should you type in the search field? 

Use keywords and subject terms that capture your topic. 

Strategize with a range of specific and broader terms.

• Ex: Superheroes AND World War II 
• Ex: Superman AND World War II
• Ex: Superheroes AND politics

Sample Subject Terms for tracking the scholarly conversation (see what words each database uses)

• SUPERHEROES    
• SUPERHERO films   
• WOMEN superheroes   
• MASS media & propaganda   
• LITERATURE & propaganda
• GRAPHIC novels -- History & criticism 

Sample Combination of Subject and Keyword: 

su:SUPERHEROES AND kw:politics

Look for Scholarly Books

Search for ebooks and print books available through Holman Library using the Gale database linked below, or by using OneSearch.

Note: While you cannot limit to scholarly peer-reviewed books, you can assess to see if a book seems scholarly. Check for: tone and language, depth of discussion and analysis, author and publisher credentials, references.  

 
Okay, so the scholarly conversation isn't quite like this but...

The scholarly conversation is taking place around us all of the time! Just think about how information is created and distributed - from a breaking event, to a Tweet, to the nightly news, to tomorrow's newspaper - news travels fast! The lifecycle of information, the commentary and analysis made and then the research and furthering of information - often done by researchers and scholars in a particular field in scholarly books and journals - help create even more information. Tapping into that conversation to "listen" and joining in on it by building on the information of others through your research and writing is a huge part of what you do as a college student! 

Image Source:  Wulff Morgenthaler strip, March 28th, 2011.