1	Advanced Composition English 310
2	How to Begin Below are the steps to doing research Decide on a topic Write a thesis statement Identify key ideas or concepts Select the appropriate database(s)
3	Developing Search Statements The key to developing search statements are: Identify key concepts in your thesis statement Identify related vocabulary Use Boolean Operators to narrow or broaden your search AND OR
4	Boolean Operator: AND
5	Boolean Operator: OR
6	Selecting a Database The Frederick Douglass Library provides access to many different databases, follow the steps below to select a database: Access the Library’s homepage at www.umes.edu/fdl Click on Databases by Subject Next, look at the databases listed under Art & Humanities
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8	Selected Database One of the best databases available in the Frederick Douglass Library for literature research is:
9	Literature Resource Center (LRC) To begin, simply enter the author’s name you are researching
10	Looking at the Results
11	Searching by Title
12	Additional Search Features Advanced Search, which allows you to limit by: Document Type Databases Available in the LRC Keyword Authors by Type Birth / Death Ethnicity Nationality Genre Theme Literary Movement / Time Period
13	Continued Authors on the Highway The Authors on the Highway search links you to the Publishers Weekly database listing upcoming author appearances. You can search by author, title, publisher, city, state, or venue. Gale Literary Index The Gale Literary Index is a free online index available within LRC and on Gale Group's website. It has index-only citations to core Gale's literature series. Encyclopedia of Literature Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature is searchable from its button on the top navigation bar that appears on every LRC page and enables you to search for the presence of any of 10,000 terms that appear in the Encyclopedia.
14	Other Literary Databases MLA
15	MLA Features Focuses on literature, language, linguistics, and folklore Provides information from books, journals, and articles Find similar subjects Find similar authors Limit by author, subject, year, document type, language phrase
16	Magill On Literature
17	Magill’s Features Search by Keyword Subject Title Author Genre Principal Characters
18	Charter search for “Friar Tuck”
19	Select Friar Tuck then “Search”
20	Character Search Results