LITTRANS 235: The World of the Sagas (Fall 2023) : Home
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WELCOME! This LibGuide has been created to help you understand how to conduct research for papers and research required in Literature in Translation 235: The World of the Sagas.
On these pages, you will learn how to decide what speaks to you about your text, how to create meaningful search terms that follow your interests, and finally, how to find and get primary and secondary literature pertaining to your topic.
Combine Search Terms
To create a search term, ask yourself the following:
What is most significant in your area? What speaks to you most? Why do you like the work the most?
Vikings, the Settlement Era of Iceland, Medieval Icelandic Women?
Next you need a Second Search Term What is special about the primary search term in the work?
Is it just Medieval Nordic Women?
Or is it particular to a time or place? How does it compare to other places, times?
Medieval Icelandic Women, Medieval Norwegian Women, Medieval Pre-Christian Swedish Women
This will be the way you find more specific articles.
Start vague and then get more specific.
Start off with “Middle Ages AND Nordic Women,” THEN “Middle Ages AND Pre-Christian Nordic Women," NOT “Middle Ages AND Pre-Christian Women AND Norway NOT Sweden,” – That may come later, but probably not.
You may want to change possible secondary search terms to ones that are synonyms or very nearly synonyms.
First try “Middle Ages AND Pre-Christian Nordic Women,” then “Middle Ages AND Pre-Christian Nordic Gender," then “Middle Ages AND Pre-Christian AND Northern Europe AND Feminism.”
You may also want to change possible secondary search term to ones that vary in specificity.
First try “Middle Ages AND Pre-Christian Nordic Women,” then “Middle Ages AND Pre-Christian Scandinavian Women,” then “Middle Ages AND Pre-Christian Women AND Northern Europe.”
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