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Monsters and the Monstrous: Your Assignment

Fact or Fiction?

Kafka - Metamorphosis

What You Need to Know

Understanding Your Assignment

Before you begin looking for information you should make sure you understand your assignment. Some good questions are:

  • How many pages?
  • How many sources?
  • What kinds of sources?
    • Books
    • Articles
    • Websites
  • What format?

Your professor is your best resource to answer these questions.

image of student with her hand raised

Introduction to Monster Research Guide

Research Basics - Step by Step

Breaking Down The Research Process  

  research process image

The following outline gives a simple and effective strategy for finding information for a research paper and documenting the sources you find. Depending on your topic and your familiarity with the library, you may need to rearrange or recycle these steps. Adapt this outline to your needs. We are ready to help you at every step in your research.

  1. Choose a topic - or have one assigned
  2. Understand your topic
    • Background reading
    • Consider a main focus
    • Refine your topic
    • Make a list of your keywords and concepts
  3. Search Sources
    • Find Books
    • Find Articles
    • Find Websites
  4. Write your paper - Informative, Analytical, Argumentative, Critical
  5. Cite your sources

            The Thesis Statement

            Although you probably started with only a broad idea of what you wanted to write about, after testing your topic and doing background reading you should be able to narrow your focus and write your thesis statement. Here are two examples of narrowing a broad topic to come up with a thesis statement:

            Monsters 

            • Vampires in Popular Culture
              • The "undead" figure prominently in popular media, including literature, film & TV
                • Vampire stories reflect changing societal attitudes about sexuality

            The Monstrous

            • Terrorism
              • Psychology of terrorists and the motivation for terrorist acts.
                • Suicide bombers are mentally unbalanced

               

            ENG 100
            Professor Blake
            SP 2020

            Your Assignment

            Your research paper theme is "Monsters" .You can write on any kind of monster - supernatural, human, object, idea, etc. 

            Talk to a Librarian

            Need Help 

             

            The Cerritos College Librarians can help you with your research in a variety of ways:

            Librarians are available during library hours to answer your questions by phone or chat.
            (562) 860-2451 x2425

            Cerritos College Library | 11110 Alondra Blvd., Norwalk, CA 90650 | 562-860-2451 | Reference ext 2425 | Circulation ext 2424