The Literature Resource Center is database that will help you find critical analysis essays about pieces of literature, as well as articles about authors. Click here for more details on databases and general database search techniques.
Off campus the databases may require username/passwords- in the link below. If you forget the password to open the password list see Ms. McNerney or email her at smcnerneyoe@olatheschools.org Click here for a video demo of using the Password PDF!
PASSWORDS FOR ALL ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Here are screenshots to help you with your search process in Literature Resource Center if you are looking for literary criticism about a specific piece of literature.
- First: select Advanced Search tab
- Enter author name— in dropdown select “person- by or about”
- Enter title of work– in dropdown menu select “name of work”
- if you want literary criticism only select that as “content type”
You can also search just by author name– in which case you may need to narrow (AKA “limit”) your results.
- Narrow by article type- lit crit, author bio, overview essays, etc
- Name of work (title)– may sure essay is about YOUR author, not just a reference to your author
- Publication title– where the source was originally published
Pro tip: clicking the “+” next to any category will expand the list of options in that particular category):
Bloom’s Literary Reference – I like the critical analysis parts of this database, but it’s not as easy to limit your results. So you should probably search for your poet’s name and the title of the poem at the same time. Here’s a screenshot.
Bloom’s also has a feature called “How to Write About…” which gives you great analysis and tips on writing essays about particular authors and their works. To locate these articles click on the “How to Write About” sidebar on the homepage:
Once you are in the “How to Write About” section you can navigate using the sidebar menus:
Literary Reference Center includes more source types– like magazines. Here’s a screenshot of how to limit your results to a particular type of original publication:
Olathe East Library 