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ENG III / ENGL 1301-1302 (Bishop): Symbolism

Klein Collins Dual Credit ENGL (Fall 2024)

So you've searched for "story title" symbols and didn't like what you found. What to do?

1. Sweatpants First: Which Symbols?

Maybe you have some ideas (the watch, the house, the ROSE), but remember: we want to put on our sweatpants before we change into something nicer. 

Start with some overview-type articles to get ideas about what the symbols are and what they symbolize.

But...

You can get ideas for symbols to focus on by jumping into generic lit crit for the story with a simple search ("a rose for emily"). Just understand you're going to be browsing a bunch of results looking for something interesting, and then you'll still be modifying your search to find additional results per column 2.

Database Tips

Full Text: not seeing where to read an article? Check your filters for a full-text limiter.
Advanced search: AND = less results, more specific. Example: stress AND college students AND finals
Advanced search: NOT = less results, but not as few as AND. Example, school NOT public.
Advanced Search: OR = more results. Example: college OR university.

2. Change Into Something Nicer

Are you ignoring the first column? Don't. This is a process. I've split it up like this for a reason. :)

Why?

Because we want to be able to do better searches than the one-trick-pony "a rose for emily" AND symbol.

Constructing a Search: Some Examples -- Including, but Not Limited To...

"a rose for emily" AND watch

"a rose for emily" AND patriarch*

"a rose for emily" AND (setting OR South*)

Use the Advanced Search. The word(s) after AND would go on the second line of the database's search fields.

Starting to Change Focus

Better Options