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English 1302 - Gammell, Sharon: Home

Keyword Searching

  • emily dickinson (A keyword search can consist of an author's name)
  • american poetry (A keyword search can consist of a short phrase)
  • emily dickinson and criticism (Combine keywords with and to retrieve items with all keywords)
  • feminis* and poetry (Use the * to retrieve words with alternate endings: in this case feminism and feminist )
  • symbol* or metaphor* (Combine keywords with or if you are not sure which keyword to use. Or will retrieve items with at least one of the keywords listed)
  • dickinson and (war or politics) (When using and and or, place the or portion of the search in parenthesis)

 

Link to Class webpage

 

This guide is designed to help you complete your writing assignments for Sharon Gammell's English 1302 class.

Getting Started

Use reference print sources and databases to obtain background information on authors, works of literature and literature-related topics. A sample of reference books available in the San Antonio College Library can be found by clicking on the Reference Sources tab located above.

Next, make a list of keywords to use for searching the Discovery and the databases. Your keywords might include the name of an author, the title of a work of literature, or a literary theme, topic, style, character, etc. Consult the Keyword Searching box to the left for some basic rules to follow when doing a keyword search.

You can also do a Subject search in the Discovery for an author or title:

  • hardy thomas (last name appears first in a subject search)
  • man he killed (leave off the initial articles a, an, and the in title searches)

Subject Guide

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