Folklore Research Paper Help

Irvine Valley College

Marjorie C. Luesebrink, M.F.A., Professor // Literature 47 -- Fable and Folktale

Research Paper Help Page 3

Research Tips

Once you have Selected and narrowed your Topic, you will be able to use your research time much more effectively. Here are a few tips and answers to FAQ's [frequently asked questions].

See also below Folklore Collections and General Resources

Book Availability - many of you find it difficult to get to the library regularly and find full-price books expensive. If you have not yet used Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble for used books, it's a good time to add this tool to your skills as a college student! Folklore research often is best done with specialized books that are hard to find in libraries, impossible to find in bookstores, but can be located online, used.
Other Media - do take advantage of other media to fill in your research. Television shows, video, and movies can help you to locate other versions of a tale for background information. I would avoid using a TV or Movie version of a story as your focus tale, though, because you will need text to work with!
Web Sources

FAQ: When I start out to research, I find that there is so much WWW material on my subject that I am overwhelmed. Answer: The information explosion is with us in many ways - there are, for instance, literally hundreds of pages on the Internet about ghosts. However, all material is not of equal value, and much of the information is redundant. You need to read or skim through some of this to find out what the landscape of information looks like for your Topic. Also, you need to be able to evaluate the validity and authority of the Website you are visiting. Here is a good Evaluation Criteria source for that prepared by

Beck, Susan. "Evaluation Criteria." The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources. 1997. http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html
[note - the above is a correct citation for a Web source!]

TIP: Be sure to note down all the relevant material when you first reach a Website - that way you can get back to it if you take another link away from that page, and you will also have the citation for your documentation. See above for correct Web citation - note author, title, date of site, Url. Subtopics and divisions also should be noted! For more informaiton on Evaluation of Web Sites and how to cite a Web Page in your Works Cited and Bibliography, please see Standard Online Assistance in Formatting a Research Paper (including Works Cited and Bibliography)

FAQ: Can I use Wikipedia for my research? Answer: There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Wikipedia as a survey source to give you a general background about a tale, motif, or subject. However, because Wikipedia is group-authored and voluntary, it has more than its share of incorrect information. Therefore - use it as an orientation resource, to get ideas about where to find more in-depth material, and be sure to check Wikipedia facts against other, more reliable sources!
Bibilography and Works Cited

FAQ: Do I need to have both a Bibliography and a Works Cited? Answer: Yes!! Documentation in scholarly and academic writing is designed to let your readers know the source of your information. However, these readers need two different kinds of assistance.

A reader needs to know the SCOPE of your material - what overall books and resources you consulted, how widely you looked into the field. This is provided by a BIBLIOGRAPHY.

A reader also needs to know the SPECIFIC LOCATION of ALL MATERIAL THAT YOU QUOTE OR BORROW, the source of questionable or little-known facts, and the genesis of developing ideas. This is provided by WORKS CITED.

Folklore Collections

Folklore and Mythology - Electronic Texts by D.L. Ashliman

Hans Christian Andersen Folk Tales from Gilead

Tales of Wonder (tales from around the world) by Nick Heinle

American Folklore by S.E. Schlosser

Religious Folklore and Legends by All Creatures