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Freshman English Information Literacy Instructors' Guide

This toolkit is intended to support information literacy instruction in Freshman English (ENGL 101 and UHON 110) classes. It provides resources for use by library faculty and teaching faculty.

Literary Analysis Research

This slideshow provides a brief introduction to literary analysis research.

Elements of Literature

Structural elements like plot, characters, symbolism, etc. are the building blocks from which authors construct texts.  Formalists consider how structural elements of the text contribute to the author’s message.  Use the Elements of Literature Checklist to keep track of the elements of texts and how they're used.

Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms

Use the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms to look up terms to enhance your reading and writing of literary criticism.

Critical Approaches to Literature

Postmodern critical approaches to literature recognize that literature, like most human activities, is social and can be understood from multiple points of view.  Postmodernism seeks inclusiveness, opening up discussions about literature to both dominant and minority voices.  Use the VirtualLit Critical Perspectives page to learn about postmodern critical approaches (lenses) that can be applied to literature.

Oxford Reference Works

The Library's Oxford Reference provides database access to valuable reference works on American, British, and other literatures.  

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