WRT486: Creative Writing Capstone

Information Need

How Will You Use this Information in your Paper?

  Where Can You Go for this Information?

Background information

(overview of topic)

• To get up to speed on the topic
• Aid in framing your setting, characters, plotlines
• Understand your genre

Search the Online Catalog and Library      Databases.  Depending on what you are looking for, you may consult various types of databases:

- reference such as Credo (for a topic overview);

- historical such as History Reference Center (for info about the time period, for example);

- biographical such as Biography Reference Center (for author background info);

- criticism such as Literature Criticism Online (for literary interpretations); and

- general such as Academic Source Premier and Jstor (for a little bit of everything).

You can also check out print and e-books and reputable websites.

Historical information about the time period, setting, etc.

• Aid in the setting of the time period and events that occurred in that time period to the themes within your work (social, cultural)
• Provides Background on a society’s “rules and conventions” at a particular time period
• Will help develop the cohesiveness of your creative writing

Literature Review

Understand what has already been written about your genre and proposed plotline, themes, characters, etc.

Scholarly research on the topic

(Psychological, societal, cultural perspectives)

• Scholar/expert support of themes within the piece
• Will help strengthen the believability and humanity of your plotlines, depth of characters, and of settings