Orientation: Myth-Folklore Bibliography Assignment

During this semester, you will be building your own Storybook containing a group of related stories that you retell in your own words. You will retell traditional stories that you find online; this assignment is designed to introduce you to the many story collections you can find online. So, I hope you will enjoy browsing through the books and finding which ones catch your attention! Then, in Week 2, you will begin the process of defining an actual Storybook project. (Please wait until you get my feedback on this assignment before you do the Week 2 Storybook assignment.)

Previously Published Books Online. If a book was published before the year 1923, it is part of the "public domain," meaning that it is no longer copyrighted and can be freely reproduced on the Internet. As a result, many of the books you will find online are older publications, published before the year 1923. In these older books, the language is sometimes stilted and old-fashioned, but don't worry about that: you will be retelling the stories in your own words anyway. The same goes for children's books: sometimes children's books make a really good source for you to use, giving a very clear presentation of the plot and characters in the story so that you have the raw ingredients you need to create your own version of that story.

STEP ONE: Read the Bibliography Guidelines

When you add stories to your Storybook project for this class, you must include a Bibliography citation for each source. I recommend that you use a simple form of citation based on the BOOK TITLE, AUTHOR, and YEAR OF PUBLICATION, plus the URL (webpage address) for your online source. You can read about this in more detail at the Bibliography Guidelines. You might find it helpful to print out a copy of these guidelines to consult when you are doing work for the class.

If you are having trouble finding the bibliography information you need, consult me BEFORE you turn in the assignment. Sometimes it is difficult to find bibliography information for online resources, but it is required. Check with me if you need help for a particular online resource - if you are unable to find the information you need for a bibliography entry, check with me and I will see if I can help you find the information you are missing.

STEP TWO: Browse Sacred Texts, Baldwin, and SurLaLune 

You will be writing up some bibliography citations for this assignment based on materials at three of the most useful websites for online story collections: the Sacred Texts Archive, the Baldwin Project, and SurLaLune Fairy Tales. For EACH of these websites, pick TWO books that are of interest to you, for a total of SIX books, and write up a Bibliography citation for each of the six books (see the sample entry below).

You are writing bibliography entries for the book, not a for a story in the book. So, that means you need the book title, book author and the year of publication along with the webpage address. Please just paste the webpage address into your email; you don't need to do anything special to make a link (email programs will do that automatically if you include the http part of the address). You also need to include a brief comment (2-3 sentences) explaining briefly what the book is about and why you chose it.

• Sacred Texts. Please choose two books from the list of Sacred Texts books. Click on the title for the books that interest you, confirm that the book really does look interesting to you, and then write up your Bibliography entry. If you're not able to find the information you need, check the Bibliography Tips.
• Baldwin Project. Please choose two books from the list of Baldwin Projects books. Click on the title for the books that interest you, confirm that the book really does look interesting to you, and then write up your Bibliography entry. If you're not able to find the information you need, check the Bibliography Tips.
• SurLaLune Fairy Tales. Please choose two books from the list of SurLaLune books. Click on the title for the books that interest you, confirm that the book really does look interesting to you, and then write up your Bibliography entry. If you're not able to find the information you need, check the Bibliography Tips.

SAMPLE ENTRY:

Book Title: Stories of the Ancient Greeks

Book Author: Charles D. Shaw

Year Published: 1903

Web Source: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=shaw&book=greeks&story=_contents

Book Comments: This is a collection of stories about the ancient Greeks, including stories about the ancient Greek gods. This is something I definitely want to learn more about - I was curious about the story called "The Kingdom Under the Ground," and also about the story with the title "The Singer and the Dolphin" (I like stories about dolphins).

 

STEP THREE: Submit the assignment

When you are done, send me your SIX book entries in an email. Please do not send an attachment - just paste the six different entries into the body of your email message. Sse the Subject Line Storybook Bibliography for your email.

There is NO Gradebook Declaration for this assignment. After you submit the assignment, I will send it back to you with comments via email. When I send you back the comments, I will also record the points for you in the Gradebook. Depending on when you turn the assignment in, you might have to wait on my comments; meanwhile, you can check to make sure I received your assignment by looking at the Assignment Stack. Meanwhile, keep going! You do not have to wait for my comments before you move on to Week 2!