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Short Story Resources & Criticism

EBSCO Discovery Search Tutorial

Video Credit: EBSCO Tutorials, Sep 19, 2023.

Literary Time Periods

Old English (Anglo-Saxon Period)           450–1066
Middle English Period 1066-1500
The Renaissance 1500-1600
The Neoclassical Period 1600-1785
The Romantic Period 1785-1832
The Victorian Age 1832-1901
The Edwardian Period 1901-1914
The Georgian Period 1910-1936
The Modern Period Early 20th century
The Postmodern Period Mid-20th century

Avoid Plagiarism

Remember, if you don't own or didn't create it, you'll need a citation or credit attached to the resource. Learn more about avoiding plagiarism below,

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

What the difference between a primary, secondary, and tertiary source?

  • Primary sources are created as close to the original event or phenomenon as it is possible to be. For example, a photograph or video of an event is a primary source. Data from an experiment is a primary source.
  • Secondary sources are one step removed from that. Secondary sources are based on or about the primary sources. For example, articles and books in which authors interpret data from another research team's experiment or archival footage of an event are usually considered secondary sources.
  • Tertiary sources are one further step removed from that. Tertiary sources summarize or synthesize the research in secondary sources. For example, textbooks and reference books are tertiary sources (Text in this section is from Suny Empire College's guide: Research Skills Tutorial).

Why is this important?

  • For your research assignments, you are asked to find primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. You'll need to be able to recognize the difference between all three. Remember primary sources are about the event. Secondary sources analyze the event and interpret another author's work. Tertiary sources summarize events from other authors after the event has occurred. 

Library Databases

Library Journals & Magazines

Keywords

Here are some keywords to use in your searches. Remember to use terms that will narrow your search! 

  • Alice Munro
  • Alice Walker
  • Allegory
  • Alliteration
  • Allusion
  • Annie Proulx
  • Antagonist
  • Anton Chekhov
  • Barry Hannah
  • Characterization / Direct Characterization / Indirect Characterization
  • Characters
  • Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  • Climax (or the high point of tension in a plot)
  • Complication
  • Conflict (also known as the story problem)
  • Criticism / literary criticism
  • Daphne du Maurier
  • Dénouement
  • Description
  • Diction
  • Dynamic character
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Elizabeth McCracken
  • Epiphany
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • Etgar Keret
  • Exposition
  • Fable
  • Falling Action
  • First-person or participant narrator
  • Flannery O'Connor
  • Flashback
  • Flash fiction
  • Flashforward
  • Flat character
  • Foreshadowing
  • Franz Kafka
  • Genre
  • Grace Paley 
  • Henry James
  • Herman Melville
  • Hyperbole
  • Imagery
  • Ironic point of view
  • Irony / Dramatic irony
  • Isaac Babel
  • Italo Calvino
  • James Baldwin
  • James Joyce
  • John Cheever
  • Jorge Luis Borges
  • Joyce Carol Oates
  • Kate Chopin 
  • Krys Lee
  • Lauren Groff'
  • Local color or regionalism
  • Limited or selective omniscience
  • Mark Twain
  • Motif 
  • Narrator / naïve narrator / unreliable narrator 
  • Nikolai Gogol
  • Novelette
  • Novella
  • O. Henry
  • Objective
  • Omniscience
  • Oscar Wilde
  • Parable
  • Plot
  • Poetry
  • Point of view
  • Protagonist
  • Ray Bradbury
  • Raymond Carver
  • Realism
  • Resolution
  • Rising Action
  • Round character
  • Setting
  • Shirley Jackson
  • Short Story
  • Static character
  • Stephen King
  • Stock character
  • Story
  • Story of initiation
  • Structure
  • Style
  • Suspense
  • Symbol
  • Tale 
  • Ted Chiang
  • Theme
  • Third-person or non-participant narrator
  • Tim O'Brien
  • Tobias Wolff
  • Tone
  • Understatement
  • W. W. Jacobs
  • Washington Irving