Orientation: Myth-Folklore & World Lit. Bibliography Assignment

During this semester, you will be building your own online Storybook containing a group of related stories that you retell in your own words. You will retell traditional stories that you find online, just as you retold a story for the Aesop's fable story retelling assignment earlier this week. This assignment is designed to introduce you to the many story collections you can find online. There are many wonderful collections with stories from all over the world, and you can start thinking now about what kind of project you might want to choose for your Storybook. (In Week 2 you will start brainstorming about your own Storybook topic.)

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 - and be careful: there is a lot of unreliable information on the Internet. If you are not finding the bibliography information you need, that could be a sign that the source you are working with is not reliable. So, make sure you contact me about any source you are using where you are having trouble with the bibliography.

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 which up a Bibliography citation for each of the six books (see the sample entry below).

For each entry, you need the book title, book author and the year of publication along with the webpage address (just paste the address into your email; you do not need to make it a link). 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 (this list is actually two pages; you can go straight to page two if you want). 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 type the six different entries into the body of your email message. If you are in the Myth-Folklore class, use the Subject Line Myth-Folklore Storybook Bibliography. If you are in the World Lit class, use the Subject Line World Lit Storybook Bibliography.

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.