Related Guides
Getting Started
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The most comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Traces the development of English words from approximately 1150 AD up to the present day.
OED tutorials - Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Over 600 reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries (English and foreign language), thesauri, books of quotations, as well as a range of subject-specific reference books.
Assignment
Library Session Goals:
- Familiarize yourself with databases and related guides including the Oxford English Dictionary, etymology dictionaries, and MLA International Bibliography. Many of the sources listed on this guide will offer a "cite" tool to help with proper citing.
- Explore the Library Guide sites and search tools in your collaborative group to begin brainstorming how you would like to approach your collaborative keyword essay.
- Complete a series of research prompts that further your engagement with these tools, your keyword and course materials.
Glossary (n): an alphabetical list of terms found in or relating to a specific subject or text with explanations.
Final class project: co-author a digital glossary of key terms for reading, analyzing, and discussing banned black books, and literary works at large. Students will work in small groups to author a keyword essay entry in our collective glossary, which future
students and educators could use as a resource*. Keyword entries should help a reader understand a particular literary text (or several) in a compelling, critical, and creative way. Group’s keyword entry should include:
- Include a definition of the term (use the OED).
- Include the etymology of the term (use etymology resource on library site)
- Explain in your own words the definitions and root; and how these definitions may shift or expand depending on the context and usage. Consider the term against a historical, social, and/or cultural backdrop.
- Explore/include 1-2 scholarly sources that define and/or discuss your term in relation to our major readings or black literature more broadly.
- An explanation of how this term can help us read these banned books in a more nuanced and complex way.
- Examples of this keyword in action, including a close reading of 2-3 of our major texts. These close readings should be at least 1-2 paragraphs per text. Point to a particular issue or highlight specific moments in the text that show how the definition is activated.
- Integrate relevant quotes from the major and supplementary texts to highlight ideas.
- The inclusion of links to other resources, images, videos, songs etc. that illustrate your keyword is encouraged
Keywords: childhood, beauty, body, memory, queer, storytelling, self-definition, place/space