Why use a research guide?
This research guide (which includes language and literature of the Francophone countries) has been developed to save you time and help you produce a better research paper. It will inform you of the best print and electronic resources for your topic. If you need assistance at any point, please ask for help at the Humanities Reference Desk, level 5, or from the European Studies specialist Richard Hacken, 5523 HBLL.

* If you are not affiliated with BYU, you may not have full access to some of the electronic resources discussed.
 

A.  Getting Started

1. Select Your Topic
2. Identify Terminology
3. Locate Background Information
4. Focus Your Topic and Form an Issue Question
5. Organize Your Topic into Concepts

B. Finding Research Materials

1. Books
2. Articles
3. Full-Text Databases
4. Additional Resources
5. Internet Resources

C. Evaluating and Selecting Resources

D. Preparing Your Paper and Citing Resources


A. Getting Started

1. Select Your Topic
Select a topic you wish to research. If you find too many materials on the topic to cover it adequately, narrow it to a subtopic or take a specialized approach. If you find too few materials, consider widening your focus (see step #4).
Separate research guides are also available for:
French History and Politics,
European Languages and Literatures,
and European History and Politics.

2. Identify Terminology
When researching a topic, it is important to use the correct terms. If using the individual subject elements in a natural language keyword search does not work for you, look up your topic in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). These "red books" are at the Humanities Reference Desk and provide you with appropriate subject headings and related terms in various subjects. Some examples of legitimate subject headings for languages and literatures of Francophone countries with their subdivisions are:

French poetry--History and criticism,
Short stories--French,
Romanticism--France,
French language--Grammar,
African literature--French,
French literature--20th century--Bibliography,
French-Canadian literature--Quebec (Province),
French drama--18th century,
French language--Dialects--Switzerland, etc.

In each case, the geographic designations and time periods could be different. Using these and similar terms in the online catalog, do a "subject" search. Once you have found relevant book entries, you can also consult the library record to find and click on other legitimate subject terms.

In many cases, of course, the name of the literary author and the work as keywords
(example: "Hugo and Miserables")
will be sufficient to locate primary literature (the work itself) and secondary literature (criticism about the work).

Begin to make a list of terms and names that describe or relate to your topic.

3. Locate Background Information
The following are a few suggested French Language and Literature reference sources. Look for more materials in the same call number areas in Humanities Reference (and in the regular shelving) on Level 5.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias:

The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French
(Hum Ref PQ 41 .N38x)

Robert-Collins, Dictionnaire français-anglais, anglais-français
(Hum Ref PC 2640 .C69)

Dictionnaire des littératures de langue française
(Hum Ref PQ 41 .B4 -- 3 vols.)

Dictionnaire des oeuvres littéraires africaines de langue française
(Hum Ref PQ 3980 .A52 P58)

Dictionary of Modern French Literature
(Hum Ref PQ 41 .D65)

Guide to French Literature
(Hum Ref PQ 226 .L48 -- 2 vols.)

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama
(Hum Ref PN 1625 .M3)

Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB)
(Hum Ref PN 451 .A6)

Cassell's Encyclopedia of World Literature
(Hum Ref PN 41 .C3)

The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics
(10 vols.: Hum Ref P 29 .E48 1994)

4. Focus Your Topic and Form an Issue Question
Once you have a general idea of the issues, names, and subdivisions of your subject, try to narrow the scope and form an "issue question" to be researched.

5. Organize Your Topic into Concepts
Take the terms that best describe your topic and organize them into concepts, as illustrated in the concept box below:
 

concept 1
concept 2
concept 3
drama$
or
play$
Africa$
French
or
Franco$

B. Finding Research Materials

1.  BOOKS

Look for books in the online Library Catalog.  When searching the catalog:
* Use the terms from your concept box as keywords, and link them with AND or NOT.
* Truncate terms that may have variants, with $ (for multiple characters) or ? (for single character).
* If using more than one term, nest the terms using parentheses.

The terms in the concept box above would be nested as follows:
(drama$ or play$) and (Africa$) and (French or Franco$).

Note the difference between subject and keyword searches!
Subject searches should be exact subject headings from the LCSH as described above. Keyword searches are more flexible and come from any field in the record (title, author, subject heading, notes, publisher, etc.) You may want to start with keywords, look at the subject headings found in the records, and then click on the subject heading link to get a more specific group of materials with that subject heading. 
2. JOURNAL ARTICLES
A. Indexes to locate secondary sources for language and literature:
These periodical indexes give you references to articles from journals, magazines, conferences, and books. The main indexes are:

MLA Bibliography
(emphasis on language, literature and folklore)
ERIC
(emphasis on language teaching)
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
(LLBA also available at Hum Ref P 1 .L26x Index Table )

B. General Periodical Indexes
There are other multidisciplinary or general-interest indexes available, many of them offering current and full-text articles.

C. Indexes in other subjects
If your topic extends to other specific subjects, check periodical indexes in those areas, such as political science, education, history, psychology, communications, etc.

* Remember to look up the journal title in the Library Catalog (by periodical title) to get the call number!

3. FULL-TEXT DATABASES
The following are just a few selections of full-text online primary literary and historical sources. When you quote from these documents, the MLA Style can be used.

ARTFL Project: American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language
(BYU is a subscriber to this project and has full access to all concordances and lexical databases.)
The Gallica Digitization Project
from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France:
Search by "Auteur" and click "Rechercer".

From the list of works, click on "Ouvrage" for full-text image;
then follow navigation guide.
Electronic Text Collections in French Literature
(from the University of Virginia)
DScriptorium: Digital Images of Medieval Manuscripts
(from BYU)
History of Belgium: Primary Documents
(From Eurodocs at BYU: selected facsimiles, transcriptions and translations of source documents)
History of France: Primary Documents
(From Eurodocs at BYU: selected facsimiles, transcriptions and translations of source documents)
History of Luxembourg: Primary Documents
(From Eurodocs at BYU: selected facsimiles, transcriptions and translations of source documents)
History of Monaco: Primary Documents
(From Eurodocs at BYU: selected facsimiles, transcriptions and translations of source documents)
History of Switzerland: Primary Documents
(From Eurodocs at BYU: selected facsimiles, transcriptions and translations of source documents)
Avalon Project
(documents in Law, History and Diplomacy from the Yale Law School)
World War I Document Archive
(from BYU)
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
5. INTERNET RESOURCES

Literature Resource Center
Search by author, title, genre, literary themes, etc.
to find author biographies, criticism, and other full-text helps.
Try it. You'll like it.
For further French Studies resources on the web, you can begin from a selection of basic links on the HBLL French Studies webpage. This will guide you further to such sites as selected newspapers from French-speaking countries, to the French Studies Web with links to French Literature, Linguistics and Culture, to French History and to French Politics & Government. Also available is a complete list of other HBLL European Language, Linguistics, Literature, History and Politics study guides.

C. Evaluating and Selecting Resources

As you sift through the materials found, keep the following criteria in mind:

Type of Information:  Is the material a scholarly or a popular publication? Are there footnotes, bibliographies, and proper documentation of the material presented? If it is a journal, is it peer reviewed?

Authorship: Who is the author, where is he/she from, what organizations is he/she associated with, what other types of materials has he/she written? What are their perspectives and biases?


D. Preparing your Paper and Citing Resources

For citations, the following style manuals can be found at various reference desks:
Gibaldi, Joseph.
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing.
2nd ed. New York : Modern Language Association of America, 1998.
Soc Sci Ref: PN 147 .G444 1998

Turabian, Kate L.
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.
6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Soc Sci Ref: LB 2369 .T8 1996

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
4th ed. Washington, DC : American Psychological Association, 1994.
Soc Sci Ref: BF 76.7 .P82 1994

The Chicago Manual of Style.
14th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Soc Sci Ref: Z 253 .U69 1993



If you have additional questions, please ask at the Humanities Reference Desk on Level 5 or at the office of the European Studies subject specialist Richard Hacken in HBLL 5523 (His electronic address is hacken@byu.edu).