SPA 452C Topics: Spanish American Literature Nobel Prize Winners

What do I need to know? First, determine what kinds of information do you need to gather.

Primary Sources are first-hand accounts. The texts you are reading are a primary source; they are the most important primary source you're working with. Other examples are diaries and letters, photographs, maps, and biographies written or created at the same time as your text. These sources can add context to your literary research.

Reference Sources give you a broad overview of the topic. They provide commonly known facts. Reference sources are not usually cited in your paper yet may be useful for the foundational background in your subject and to ensure you have a thorough grounding in the topic.

Literary biographies provide you with ample information about authors, with an emphasis on how their lives are related to their writing. They may provide rationales and the impetus behind why the literature was written.

Secondary Sources are referred to as criticism. These are materials that scholars have written about a particular work of literature, movement, or author. Criticism can help you get a sense of the themes or movements which scholars studied and debated. They may help inform your own understanding of a text, either because they reinforce your interpretation, or differ from it. Literary criticism is most often published in books; yet is often found in scholarly journals as well.