English 300L - Library Research

For the source evaluation assignment, you should find a source that will be helpful for you in the writing of your final paper for ENG 320. As the prompt for the paper is "an eight-page critical essay on a topic of your choice," the type of source you use for the assignment could range. Some examples:

• an article that is a critical examination of one of the fairy tales you are writing about
  • the author has points you agree with and intend to use as evidence in your essay, or
  • the author makes a claim about the work(s) that you disagree with and will discuss in your essay
• a theory article that explains a critical lens (e.g., Queer critical theory) that you intended to apply

Your final paper is the course assignment that will be discussed in your required ENG 300L individual meeting with Kennedy. If you are doing external research (finding sources outside of course materials) our session can be dedicated to searching (developing search terms, running searches, sorting through results, evaluating articles, etc.), or our session can focus on the incorporation of these materials in terms of in-text and bibliography formatting.

In general, here are some search tips when looking for scholarship on Fairy Tales:

1. Use quotation marks around the title of the fairy tale or work; e.g., "The Magic Fish"
2. For fairy tales with names in languages other than English, search for both the English and the original language title; e.g., "Malá mořská víla" OR "The little mermaid"
3. Use filters/limiters to weed out too many results
4. Double-check your result is for the right version of the fairy tale. Some have the same name or remakes! Use the date and/or the author's name as a search term.

For more general information about finding journal articles, view our Find Articles research guide.

Märchen- is the official MLA Descriptor (SU) for Fairy Tales 

• Do Not Use Fairy Tales as a Descriptor (SU) 

You can use Fairy Tales as a plain Keyword, but not as a descriptor or Subject Heading. Märchen will retrieve the MOST results. You can include OR "folk tale" as a more broad term.

Searching in MLA Bibliography:

Looking for fairy tale writers?  

Use their names in the Subject - SU field

• Grimm in SU

• Hans Andersen in SU
• Perrault in SU

Looking for a known tale by name?  

Use the Subject - SU field and tale name (include original language names with an OR operator!)

• Cinderella in SU
• Hansel & Gretel in SU
• Puss n Boots  in SU

Looking for criticism on a specific version of a tale?

Use the Author and Tale name in the Subject - SU field. You may also want to include the country/region of origin:

• Perrault and Cinderella - in SU
• Grimm and Hansel and Gretel - in SU
• Andersen and Mermaid in SU 

Looking at a motif or element -  not a specific tale?  

Use Märchen* in the SU field + your motif or element keyword without a field  (All Fields):

• ​Märchen in SU  AND  "rages to riches"
• Märchen in SU  AND  princess*
• Märchen in SU  AND  frog*

Add a box searching film in the Subject - SU field. Some fairy tales have been made into multiple films, include additional terms such as the names of directors and/or the year the film was produced with no field selected in order to get results for the correct film.

Examples:

• Snow White
  • "Snow white" - in SU
  • film - in SU
  • 1937, Hand (no field selected)
• Cinderella
  • Cinderella - in SU
  • film - in SU
  • 1950, Geronimi (no field selected)

For more tips on finding Film Criticism in MLA Bibliography and other databases, see our find Film Criticism page!