ENG 202: Victorian Writers (Compton)

2. Explore Your Topic

After thoroughly examining your assignment, now it's time to look for some initial background research on your topic.  Try a search in the following database to learn more about your topic.

For background information on specific literary works, consider the For Students Series:

Analyze Your Topic

Who

Who is the author or poet that you are writing about? Who do they write about? Who is their audience that they are writing for?

What

Read some background information or a summary to learn more about your author or poet, and then make a list of relevant factors.

The background reading can also provide you with keywords, specialized vocabulary, and definitions, which will be useful for future searches.

When

All authors or poets for this assignment were writing at the end of the Victorian Age and the beginning of the Progressive Era. Be sure you know what dates and times are involved in your author or poet because that will affect how you write about them. and how their work has been interpreted. Your topic may have specific dates associated with it or it may be more general.

Where

Where was your author or poet writing from? How has their geographic location influenced how and what they write about?

Why

This is a really important one. Why do people care about this author or poet after all this time? Why are we still reading and discussing their work in the 21st century?