Course Info

• Course Number: ENG 399
• Credits: 2*
• Instructor: Prof. Gordon Sayre
• CRN: 16519
• Class Meetings: TR 10:00-11:20

*Note: DH minors are required to complete 12 credits of required courses and 12 credits of electives.

Course Description

This course is designed for undergraduates who are interested in writing an honors thesis in English or other humanities majors, are preparing for graduate programs, or simply want to enhance their skills for upper-division coursework. We will learn how to do original research, and how these methods have changed in the 21^st century. Field trips and guest speakers include Knight library specialists, and faculty in digital humanities and book history. Five units are planned:

1. Scholarly journals: Scholarly publications about literature, film and media, folklore and ethnic studies, and related fields comprise thousands of titles. How are scholarly journals edited and published? How can one find the most authoritative, reliable publications? How do students find venues for their first publications?
2. Scholarly databases and search tools: Google Scholar, JSTOR, ProQuest, etc….there now so are many ways to search for scholarly literature, and it can inspire and support your own writing projects, or it can leave you confused and bewildered. We will learn how to efficiently use databases and search engines, and how to quickly evaluate the titles, authors, and abstracts these provide, in order to select what will really help you read, analyze, and write. 
3. Archives and special collections: how to locate and access the letters, papers, and manuscripts of important authors, at UO libraries and elsewhere.
4. Manuscripts and paleography: to hold and read paper documents from the 19^th century and earlier (before typewriters and computers were invented) is a special treat. Interpreting the handwriting requires skill and patience. This is how early books were made, and how the English language became standardized with consistent spelling and punctuation.
5. Digital humanities resources: most archives have digitized their important manuscripts and collections. Learn how to find, search, and cite these sources, as well as key DH projects which expand and interpret them. Your own thesis research may involve using or creating digital tools to process and interpret large corpora of digital text.