Chinese New Year Celebration in front of Gleeson Library, Photo by Shawn Calhoun
Getting Started
Topics and Keywords. 关键词
Can you think of 2-3 words to describe what you will be writing about for your final paper? What literary texts will you be writing about? Who wrote them? What will you be analyzing about these texts?
You can use these keywords (author, title, themes) to start searching for information at Gleeson Library. Try to keep your keywords short and simple!
Examples:
Tao Yuanming and Utopia
Li Po OR Li Bai OR Li Bo AND Wine
Eileen Chang OR Zhang Ailing OR Chang Ai-ling AND “Sealed Off” AND Gender
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Your topic might change as you conduct your research and gather information: this is part of the process.
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Brainstorm keywords and synonyms, write them down, keep track of them, and add to them if necessary as you go along.
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Example: modernity, love, gender inequality, nature, Confucianism, Taoism
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Consider using a research log to keep track of your keywords and search strategies.
Keeping track of references/sources
Consider using Refworks, or another online reference manager to create a personal database of your references/sources.
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Online reference managers can also help you automatically generate citations, as well as entire bibliographies and works cited lists.
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Check Refworks citations against citation manuals. Refworks citations are not always perfect and might need to be edited or cleaned-up.
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To create a Refworks account: click the RefWorks link below. Then click CREATE ACCOUNT at the bottom of the page and follow the instructions.
- RefWorks
RefWorks allows users to create personal databases to manage, store, and share the information citations/references. Users can automatically insert references from their database into their papers and generate formatted bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds. See our RefWorks Guide for information about creating accounts, adding references, and using add-ons.
