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Assignment | The American Dream & Great Gatsby Character Analysis (Black, Trainer): Research

ENGL 1301 / Dual-Credit English III | Ms. Black & Mrs. Trainer

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Literature Databases

To assist you in understanding and interpreting Gatsby and its lead characters:

Databases for Researching the American Dream

When you're trying to figure out what to search with, keep in mind that although the state of the American dream actually is an explicit topic of research and polling, that's not the only search term to try! What are aspects of the American dream (or obstacles to it) that you could search for? 

For example,

  • success, achievement
    • What is success? What are the measures of success? Income, social standing, personal satisfaction...?
  • social mobility or class mobility, upward mobility
  • discrimination
  • wage stagnation
  • business or home ownership
  • education opportunities or access to education
  • identity
  • "self-made" person

E-Books (No, You Don't Need to Read Them Cover to Cover for Research)

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.

Accessing the Databases

Access online library materials through the library databases!

To access the databases locked icon (same icon that displays by the LSC-limited access resources) from off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your LSC email/password or your 14-digit library barcode.

Workshop Recording

If you want to skip around:

0:40 Pre-Research & Topic Development Recap
2:20 Creating Search Terms
3:27 Databases intro
4:05 AND/OR/NOT, parentheses
7:19 Database demonstration in Academic Search Complete
11:20 Wildcards
12:28 Quotation Marks
13:49 Proximity
15:33 Recap
15:59 All database work basically the same using these principles
17:29 Ask us about your specific research problem!

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