EALC 299: Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature and Film (HC)

This tab includes further information on annotated bibliographies, handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries and bibliographies. 

• Bibliographies are sources that identify and organize published scholarship about specific topics. Sometimes these look like the bibliographies you might compile at the end of a term paper. Other times they act like annotated bibliographies, with short essays or statements describing the resource and why it might be useful to a researcher. Bibliographies differ from handbooks because they go into further depth on a topic.  They may include critical essays where the author identifies the core literature of a field of study. It illustrates what is available in a given field, while a literature review often opens up questions for new inquiries. 
• Handbooks and companions provide subject-specific essays that include analyses as well as descriptive material about specific topics.  Together the essays provide a good overview of a broader subject.
• Subject dictionaries focus on word definitions in a specific subject area. 

How do you select a really good paper topic that will be narrow enough but also broad enough to suit your needs? Consider looking at Oxford Bibliographies Online         . There are many articles that are about all aspects of East Asian culture. Oxford bibliographies are written by experts in the field and are presented as an annotated bibliography. Each source has a "Find It" button so that you can easily request materials from the library. (Please note: For some of the subjects, Bryn Mawr or Swarthmore students will have to use this resource on Haverford's campus). Contact your friendly librarian for more information.