2. Explore Your Topic - ENG 102 - Magazines and Female Short Story Writers - SCC Research Guides at Spartanburg Community College

Explore The History

Once you have an idea about what your assignment is and what your topic might be, now it's time to begin exploring your topic to learn more about it. This is an important step in the research process because as you learn more about your topic, you begin to think about what points you might want to research further. In addition, learning about your topic helps you identify keywords or search terms to use later in your research.

Try the resources below to begin exploring.

Women's Magazines
Article describing the history of women's magazines from The SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism
Feminism in Nineteenth-Century Literature
The Feminism in Nineteenth-Century Literature topic page from Gale Literature will provide an overview and reference and literary criticism articles about feminism in Nineteenth-Century literature.

Explore Your Author

Begin researching your short story author.

Consider the following questions:

Was the author popular during their time?

What types of stories did they write? Include a brief discussion of one of their stories.

Where were their stories published?

How did the public respond to their work?
How is she received today?

Gale in Context: Biography
Look up information on specific people. Find biographical essays, magazine/newspaper/journal articles, images and websites for people.

Explore Your Magazine

Who was the magazine’s primary audience?

How popular was the magazine?

Is the magazine still in publication today? If so, how has it changed over time?

Credo Reference
Articles from almost 600 reference books, covering various subjects.

Explore Your Short Story

For this assignment, you are required to discuss the types of stories the author wrote, including a brief discussion of at least one of her stories.

Search in Short Stories for Students for your author using the "Search Within Series" button on the upper right side. This is a great resource for beginning research on short stories.

Short Stories for Students
ISBN: 1414421850

Short Stories for Students is a great place to start! Learn more about your short story's characters, themes, style, setting, symbols and more! Use the search box to see if there is an entry on your short story (just type in the title). *Each entry also has several literary criticism essays also.