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Core Curriculum – Literature & Writing

Everyone here who gets a bachelor’s degree has to first get through the core curriculum.  Think of it as spinach.  Remember how as a child you hated spinach but your mom said you had to eat it cuz it’s good for you?  And now as an adult you willingly eat spinach.  Well, when you’re sitting through that class that you had to take cuz it fulfills your core curriculum requirement, just remember that it’s good for you.  And that down the road you’ll appreciate it.  UST is just like your mom.  It wants what’s best for you – and in this case, it’s taking a few courses that will make you a well-rounded, educated individual.  Trust me, it’s good for you.

That said, I’m going to offer up a few blog posts devoted to helping you through those core classes.  I know not everyone forced to take biology is interested in it (trust me, I remember linguistics.  No. Interest. Whatsoever).   So for the next few posts I’ll give some short-cuts to resources in each of the core curriculum requirement starting with Literature & Writing.

For most of your literature needs, you can use Literature Resource Center.  It offers

  • overviews of works (in case you’re not sure what you just read or prefer spoilers before you start)
  • topic overviews (which are themes across several works – i.e. racism in literature, motherhood in 19th century literature)
  • literary criticism (which are articles written by other people about a work that will lend ideas or weight to your paper)
  • author biographies

Blackwell Literature is a collection of hundreds of encyclopedias, both broad and specific, about all things literature: fiction, poetry, literary criticism, theater, theory,short stories, novels, it goes on and on.  This is for background info – gives you idea of what to expect on a topic.

If it’s just articles you want – and you didn’t find them in Literature Resource Center, use MLA.

We have many, many more resources used for all English and writing classes.  Or check out the research guides.