ICSM Telling True Stories: The Art of the Essay
Best Bet Database: MLA International Bibliography: In addition to Essay you can run Subject searches on Biographical essay, Critical essay, Historical essay, Moral essay, Nature essay, Personal essay, Political essay, and Scientific essay.
The Essay
Essay
Essay--Authorship
Essays [collections of essays]
American essays [collections of essays]
American essays--20th century [collections of essays]
English essays [collections of essays]
English essays--History and criticism
French essays [collections of essays]
French essays--History and criticism
Report writing
Report writing--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Prose literature--History and criticism
Prose literature--Technique
American prose literature--20th century--History and criticism
American prose literature--History and criticism
For individual essayists, try a Subject search on the name, last name first:
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592--Criticism and interpretation
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592. Essais
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592--Philosophy
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592--Political and social views
Hazlitt, William, 1778-1830
Hazlitt, William, 1778-1830--Criticism and interpretation
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956
Journalism
Feature writing
Journalism
Journalism--Authorship
Journalism--Objectivity
Journalism--Objectivity--United States
Journalistic errors
Journalism--Philosophy
Journalism, Scientific
Journalism--Social aspects
Journalistic ethics
Sports journalism
Reportage literature, American--History and criticism
Reporters and reporting
Reporters and reporting--United States
Investigative reporting
Investigative reporting--United States
Nonfiction Across the Curriculum
Academic writing
Technical writing
Technical writing--Handbooks, manuals, etc
Medical writing
Medical sciences--Authorship
Ecology--Authorship
Natural history--Authorship--Study and teaching
Science news
Social sciences--Authorship
Communication in the social sciences
Business writing
Historiography [the authorship of historical writings]
Historiography--History
History--Philosophy
Biography as a literary form
Autobiography--Authorship
Travel writing
Language Matters
English language--Rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric--Philosophy
Openings (Rhetoric)
Description (Rhetoric)
Exposition (Rhetoric)
Narration (Rhetoric)
Persuasion (Rhetoric)
Closure (Rhetoric)
Readability (Literary style)
Telling the Truth
Objectivity
Truth
Certainty
Belief and doubt
Telling it Slant
Perspective
Perception
Selectivity (Psychology)
Projection (Psychology)
Prejudices
Self-deception
Essay
Essay--Authorship
Essays [collections of essays]
American essays [collections of essays]
American essays--20th century [collections of essays]
English essays [collections of essays]
English essays--History and criticism
French essays [collections of essays]
French essays--History and criticism
Report writing
Report writing--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Prose literature--History and criticism
Prose literature--Technique
American prose literature--20th century--History and criticism
American prose literature--History and criticism
For individual essayists, try a Subject search on the name, last name first:
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592--Criticism and interpretation
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592. Essais
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592--Philosophy
Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592--Political and social views
Hazlitt, William, 1778-1830
Hazlitt, William, 1778-1830--Criticism and interpretation
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956
Journalism
Feature writing
Journalism
Journalism--Authorship
Journalism--Objectivity
Journalism--Objectivity--United States
Journalistic errors
Journalism--Philosophy
Journalism, Scientific
Journalism--Social aspects
Journalistic ethics
Sports journalism
Reportage literature, American--History and criticism
Reporters and reporting
Reporters and reporting--United States
Investigative reporting
Investigative reporting--United States
Nonfiction Across the Curriculum
Academic writing
Technical writing
Technical writing--Handbooks, manuals, etc
Medical writing
Medical sciences--Authorship
Ecology--Authorship
Natural history--Authorship--Study and teaching
Science news
Social sciences--Authorship
Communication in the social sciences
Business writing
Historiography [the authorship of historical writings]
Historiography--History
History--Philosophy
Biography as a literary form
Autobiography--Authorship
Travel writing
Language Matters
English language--Rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric--Philosophy
Openings (Rhetoric)
Description (Rhetoric)
Exposition (Rhetoric)
Narration (Rhetoric)
Persuasion (Rhetoric)
Closure (Rhetoric)
Readability (Literary style)
Telling the Truth
Objectivity
Truth
Certainty
Belief and doubt
Telling it Slant
Perspective
Perception
Selectivity (Psychology)
Projection (Psychology)
Prejudices
Self-deception
MLA International Bibliography provides the most complete and fully indexed coverage of articles and books on modern literatures, linguistics, folklore, rhetoric, and composition from 1925 to the present. There is ample full text provided by ProQuest, as well as links to full-text articles in JSTOR and Project Muse. Full text from other IC databases is also readily available via the "GetIt" links below article citations.
Because books, book chapters/essays, and dissertations will usually not be available full text, you may wish to limit your search to "Journal article" under "Source type."
"Author's Work" and "Author as Subject" will be especially helpful search fields at finding literary criticism. And for additional search field options either click on "Show more fields," or, for the complete list, open the drop-down menus to the right of the "Anywhere" default for the top three rows of search slots. This list includes both "Literary Influence"--who influenced a particular author you have entered--and "Literary Source"--who was influenced by that particular author.
If you set up a free "My Research" account with Proquest (top right), you can save all the articles you check, all the searches you want to remember, and set up e-mail or RSS notification for any new articles that match your search terms.
General OneFile : is the most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text. Use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic (and when you find a good one be sure to look at the "Related Subjects" to see if there's something even better).
When you settle on a subject heading, open the "Subdivisions" link below it. Most General OneFile subject searchs produce very large retrievals and the "subdivisions" help you narrow your search to a particular aspect: "Ethical aspects," "Forecasts and Trends," "History," "Political aspects," "Psychological aspects," and "Social aspects," to name only a few.
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results
Academic Search Premier Comprehensive subject coverage with considerable full text. Note that there is a “Subject Terms” link just above the search boxes, allowing you to search the index of Subject Headings--often a good first stop for more efficient Subject searching whereby you are guaranteed that your topic is indeed a main subject of the articles retrieved.
Because books, book chapters/essays, and dissertations will usually not be available full text, you may wish to limit your search to "Journal article" under "Source type."
"Author's Work" and "Author as Subject" will be especially helpful search fields at finding literary criticism. And for additional search field options either click on "Show more fields," or, for the complete list, open the drop-down menus to the right of the "Anywhere" default for the top three rows of search slots. This list includes both "Literary Influence"--who influenced a particular author you have entered--and "Literary Source"--who was influenced by that particular author.
If you set up a free "My Research" account with Proquest (top right), you can save all the articles you check, all the searches you want to remember, and set up e-mail or RSS notification for any new articles that match your search terms.
General OneFile : is the most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text. Use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic (and when you find a good one be sure to look at the "Related Subjects" to see if there's something even better).
When you settle on a subject heading, open the "Subdivisions" link below it. Most General OneFile subject searchs produce very large retrievals and the "subdivisions" help you narrow your search to a particular aspect: "Ethical aspects," "Forecasts and Trends," "History," "Political aspects," "Psychological aspects," and "Social aspects," to name only a few.
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results
Academic Search Premier Comprehensive subject coverage with considerable full text. Note that there is a “Subject Terms” link just above the search boxes, allowing you to search the index of Subject Headings--often a good first stop for more efficient Subject searching whereby you are guaranteed that your topic is indeed a main subject of the articles retrieved.
A good initial strategy in this database is to search a likely topic in the Subject Terms and when you find it “explode” the term by double clicking it--this brings up a list of related Subject terms. You can check as many terms as you like before "adding" them to your search by AND-ing or OR-ing them together.
User Advisory: For any retrieved set of articles, there will be a box displayed on the left that will limit the articles to “Scholarly” journals—just check the box and click the “Update Results” button below.
ProQuest Research Library is another comprehensive database with substantial full text. Use the "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to preview what Subject Headings are available.
Note that to the right of your search results you can limit your retrieval by "Source Type" (including Magazines, Newspapers, Scholarly Journals), "Document Type," (including Cover Story, Editorial, or Interview), and "Location."
Above each set of articles you retrieve ProQuest will display related Subject searches to help either broaden or narrow your focus.
PsycINFO : The American Psychological Association use their own Subject vocabulary (called "Descriptors"), so a visit to the "Thesaurus" above the search slots is usually a good idea--but unfortunately there is no Subject Heading for "conspiracy" or "conspiracy theories" here. Both will work as keywords, however, and retrieve dozens of articles.
PsycINFO deals only with scholarly literature, much of it assuming a graduate-level understanding of the discipline. But among these you may find interesting, accessible articles on your topic.
User Advisory: If what you're searching for are "journals" in "English," it's a good idea to check those boxes below the search slots.
ERIC (Ebsco interface) : A disciplinary database in Education—at all levels. The field of Education has its own set of Subject Headings so be sure to browse the “Thesaurus” (above the search slots) for the best "Descriptors." ERIC provides access not only to relevant journal literature (citations for these end in a number preceded by EJ—ERIC Journal), but also to research published directly to ERIC (citations for these end in a number preceded by ED—ERIC Document.
JSTOR : covers a wide range of scholarly journals in most disciiplines, always beginning with the first issue of each one. This provides 100% full text access to articles from not only the first half of the 20th century but even the second half of the 19th. Be aware, however, that at the other end of the date range articles don't appear in JSTOR until at least 1-2 years after publication.
JSTOR offers only a Keyword search of its complete full text, so retrievals are large, but the relevancy ranking does a good job of putting the strongest matches on the first few pages. This relevancy ranking does not weigh date, however, and will display a mix of articles written decades apart. So if your topic is time sensitive, be alert to publication dates.
User Advisory: The academic journals covered here feature numerous book reviews, so it's a good idea to tic the "Article" limit below the search slots so you won't be overwhelmed by book reviews on your topic.
Project Muse , although a smaller database, it complements JSTOR. LIke JSTOR it provides 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals, but its coverage is entirely current--mainly spanning the last 10-15 years. Muse offers a basic keyword search (be sure to put the titles of literary works in quotation marks). Once you've retrieved a set of articles you can sort them into broad categories using the Research Area options on the left.
Note: Checking the "Articles" box under Content Type before you run a search will eliminate reviews of books about your topic and leave you with just the articles on your topic.
ProQuest Research Library is another comprehensive database with substantial full text. Use the "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to preview what Subject Headings are available.
Note that to the right of your search results you can limit your retrieval by "Source Type" (including Magazines, Newspapers, Scholarly Journals), "Document Type," (including Cover Story, Editorial, or Interview), and "Location."
Above each set of articles you retrieve ProQuest will display related Subject searches to help either broaden or narrow your focus.
PsycINFO : The American Psychological Association use their own Subject vocabulary (called "Descriptors"), so a visit to the "Thesaurus" above the search slots is usually a good idea--but unfortunately there is no Subject Heading for "conspiracy" or "conspiracy theories" here. Both will work as keywords, however, and retrieve dozens of articles.
PsycINFO deals only with scholarly literature, much of it assuming a graduate-level understanding of the discipline. But among these you may find interesting, accessible articles on your topic.
User Advisory: If what you're searching for are "journals" in "English," it's a good idea to check those boxes below the search slots.
ERIC (Ebsco interface) : A disciplinary database in Education—at all levels. The field of Education has its own set of Subject Headings so be sure to browse the “Thesaurus” (above the search slots) for the best "Descriptors." ERIC provides access not only to relevant journal literature (citations for these end in a number preceded by EJ—ERIC Journal), but also to research published directly to ERIC (citations for these end in a number preceded by ED—ERIC Document.
Education uses its own Subject Headings, so a useful first stop is the ERIC "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to see what Subject searches will work here. This is also a helpful exercise in that once you have found the appropriate Subject Heading you can "explode" it (double click) and generate a list of related Subject Headings.
JSTOR : covers a wide range of scholarly journals in most disciiplines, always beginning with the first issue of each one. This provides 100% full text access to articles from not only the first half of the 20th century but even the second half of the 19th. Be aware, however, that at the other end of the date range articles don't appear in JSTOR until at least 1-2 years after publication.
JSTOR offers only a Keyword search of its complete full text, so retrievals are large, but the relevancy ranking does a good job of putting the strongest matches on the first few pages. This relevancy ranking does not weigh date, however, and will display a mix of articles written decades apart. So if your topic is time sensitive, be alert to publication dates.
User Advisory: The academic journals covered here feature numerous book reviews, so it's a good idea to tic the "Article" limit below the search slots so you won't be overwhelmed by book reviews on your topic.
Project Muse , although a smaller database, it complements JSTOR. LIke JSTOR it provides 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals, but its coverage is entirely current--mainly spanning the last 10-15 years. Muse offers a basic keyword search (be sure to put the titles of literary works in quotation marks). Once you've retrieved a set of articles you can sort them into broad categories using the Research Area options on the left.
Note: Checking the "Articles" box under Content Type before you run a search will eliminate reviews of books about your topic and leave you with just the articles on your topic.
Few databases offer 100% full text. Most retrieve a mix of full text articles and article "citations"--article title, author(s), publication info, and usually an "abstract" or one-prargraph summary of the content. When a citation makes you want the full text, look below it for this icon:
Clicking "GETIT" checks (almost all) the IC Library's other databases to see if any offers the full text of the article--or if the Library has a print subscription to the journal in which the article appeared.
Clicking "GETIT" checks (almost all) the IC Library's other databases to see if any offers the full text of the article--or if the Library has a print subscription to the journal in which the article appeared.
- "GETIT" will usually find the full text in another database and open it in a new window.
- If none of our databases can access the full text but we have a print subsciption to the journal, "GETIT" will retrieve the Library catalog record for the journal so that you can see if the date of the article falls within the date range we have on hand.
- If full text is not available from any database or from a print subsciption, "GETIT" will provide a link to the IC Library's Interlibrary Loan. Log in (same as your IC e-mail)--and set up your account if you've never used it before. "GETIT" will have populated the article request form with all the necessary information and you simply submit the request elecrtonically. Most articles are supplied as digital files and will be sent to you via e-mail when they arrive.
- Ebrary
- Citation
- Interlibrary Loan
- Plagiarism Tutorial
- How to Write
- Writing Better Essays
- Write Great Essays!
- Writing Essays : A Guide for Students in English and the Humanities
- Essaying the Past : How to Read, Write and Think about History
- Academic Writer’s Toolkit : A User's Manual
- Critical Inquiry : The Process of Argument
- Art of Editing
- Everyone Can Write : Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing
- American Essay in the American Century
- Reading Essays : An Invitation
- Truth in Nonfiction : Essays
- Writing Your Self : Transforming Personal Material
- Memoir and the Memoirist : Reading and Writing Personal Narrative
- Fearless Confessions : A Writer's Guide to Memoir
- Made-Up Self : Impersonation in the Personal Essay
- Altered Egos : Authority in American Autobiography
- Missing Persons : The Impossibility of Auto/Biography
- Touching the World : Reference in Autobiography
- Repossessing the World : Reading Memoirs by Contemporary Women
- Autobiography, Ecology, and the Well-Placed Self : The Growth of Natural Biography in Contemporary American Life
- Writing for Journalists
- News with A View : Essays on the Eclipse of Objectivity in Modern Journalism
- Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight : Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, and the New Journalism Revolution
- Extreme Pursuits : Travel/Writing in an Age of Globalization
- Writing Around the World : A Guide to Writing Across Cultures
Writing Better Essays: The Basics
Telling True Stories: Creative Nonfiction
- Essay Writing: from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), an overview with individual guides for expository essays, descriptive essays, narrative essays, and argumentative (persuasive) essays. Also see the Owl page on Creative Nonfiction.
- The Essay: A University of Victoria Writer's Guide, with extensive resources on the process and varieties of essay writing.
- Essay Organization: Compact overview from the University of Nevada Writing Center.
- Model Papers from the Disciplines: The Yale Writing Center posts a selection of winners from its essay contest, with representatives from a wide range of academic disciplines.
- Writer's Web: From the University of Richmond's Writing Center, this is a thorough, well-organized set of resources. Use the index on the left and see especially "Writing in the Disciplines."
- Writing Resources: From Harvard's Writing Center, linked materials for various aspects of essay writing.
- Short Guide to College Writing: Good balance of theory and practical advice in this University of Chicago Writing Program resource.
- Guide to Grammar & Writing: Writing guides at the sentence, paragraph, and essay levels, with helpful illustrations.
- Common Errors in English: Devoted to common mistakes in word usage, especially terms confused with one another. Scroll down the home page for alphabetical index.
- Punctuation Made Simple: Clear, concise explanations of the colon, semicolon, comma, dash, and apostrophe.
Telling True Stories: Creative Nonfiction
- BEDELL NONFICTIONOW CONFERENCE: Sponsored by the Iowa Writers Workshop, the Iowa University Library keeps these audio files of keynote speakers.
- "Truth, Lies, and Nonfiction": This links to a site hosting the audio file for this lecture by nonfiction wirter Stephen Kimber, as well as a a related Q&A; transcript for the Writers' Union of Canada.
- Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference: this links to video interviews with past presenters.
- Non-Fiction Writers on Writing: from Colorado State University, five non-fiction writers provide video answers to a series of questions about their work. (Requires Windows Media Player.)
- "Nonfiction is the New Philosophy": a print interview with Steven Church that appeared in Prairie Schooner.
- Truth in Creative Non-fiction: A Debate: 12 essays from a wide range of publications--New Yorker, Slate, LA Times, etc. Note: the paragraph beside each image is not the article: you must click on the numbered title.
- "Literary Non-fction: The Facts": Interesting commentary from a group of non-fiction writers.
- "The Ever-ShiftingTruth and the Creative Nonfiction Writer’s Journey to Find It": appropriately enough, a personal essay.
- Nonfiction Now: An Evening with Helen Garner: video of a presenetation by an acclaimed nonfiction wirter discussing her craft.
MLA is the citation style used by most disciplines in the Humanities. The guides below use the latest 2008/9 standards.
