Librarian for English
Reference Sources
- Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature This link opens in a new windowThe Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature contains over 400 articles and aims to map, over time, the world’s entire landscape of literary expressions and criticism, weaving together the various fields and approaches that make up literature.
- The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing SystemsThis is an encyclopedia of writing systems, scripts and orthographies of all the world's major languages, past and present. It provides both a fully illustrated description of over 400 writing systems and an account of the study of writing in many different disciplines, from anthropology to psychology.
Helpful URLs
- Ask a LibrarianQuestions? Ask us! Chat, call, text, or email anytime.
- Purchase RecommendationsIs there an ebook you think the UVA Library should own but doesn't? Make a purchase recommendation.
- Using Databases Off GroundsHave questions about accessing databases from off-grounds? Find more information here.
Library Research
This guide was created to help you prepare for your short research assignment and lightning talk on your chosen writing technology.
In preparation for your assignment, which requires research, you have hopefully begun to think of possible questions to start your inquiry. You will also want to spend some time thinking about how you will conduct your research.
- Fine-tune your searches.
Think broadly when brainstorming search terms. What synonyms or related terms could stand in for your key search terms? If it helps, use the UVA Library Online Thinking Tool to help you think through concepts related to your question/topic.
You can combine search terms using AND ("generative AI" AND education) and OR (education OR instruction OR schooling). In many databases, the asterisk (*) is a truncation or "wildcard" symbol that will match all possible endings for a word stem. For example, art* will match art, artificial, artificially, arthritis, artifacts, etc.
Most databases have filters or facets that allow you to narrow your results by subject, date range, etc. Limit your searches to help you find the sources you need.
- Think about where you might find the type of information you are seeking.
Will you find the research you need in an e-book? A journal article? A magazine? A newspaper? An interview? Cast a wide net when looking for the types of resources that could help answer your research question or support an argument you are making.
- Know the difference between academic and non-academic sources, and when it's appropriate to use them.
Most databases allow you to limit results to academic/scholarly/peer-reviewed sources. Be mindful of your assignment and what you're being asked to provide. Need a refresher? Watch the short video Peer Review in 3 Minutes.
- When you find a good source, use it to find other good sources.
Use the subject terms and keywords associated with an article or essay to find other articles and essays on similar topics. Scholarly essays and journal articles will have works cited, bibliographies, or footnotes you can mine for additional resources.
Need help? Ask a librarian.
Finding articles
Example Databases for researching Writing Technologies (See an A-Z list of all databases)
Communication & Mass Media Complete provides coverage of journals in communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields of study.
MLA International Bibliography (MLAIB) indexes the broadest range of resources about literature and writing in all languages as well as film, television, and popular culture, including over 4,000 journals as well as books and dissertations. For articles not available full-text in MLA, click on “Find article @ UVa Libraries,” or look up the journal title in Virgo, the library catalog.
Education Full Text allows you to search for articles and reviews from English-language periodicals and yearbooks about all aspects of education. From 1994 has abstracts, from 1996 has full text of major articles from selected journals.
Scopus is an abstract and citation database that indexes content from more than 25,000 active titles and 7,000 publishers—all rigorously vetted and selected by an independent review board. Highly recommend for research related to science or technology, although it covers much more than just these areas.
Academic Search Complete is a large general database of articles from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers on many topics.
CQ Researcher provides in-depth In depth reports on selected issues in the news with lists of recommended books and articles. Good for current news topics like the regulation of AI or generative AI and copyright. Be sure to check the dates of articles - if it's an article on AI you probably want it to be from the last couple of years!
Google Scholar is useful for finding scholarly articles, books, and websites. It can also be useful for seeing who has cited an article or essay after it was published.
Finding book essays & articles using Virgo
Virgo, the UVA Library’s primary search tool, contains catalog records for books, print journals, DVDs, maps, and digitized materials, as well as links to online articles from our rich array of subscription journals. You can search catalog materials and articles together, or view those results separately, using the facets provided to limit your results by author, format, publication period, and more. To find online content, use Filter Results By (on the left) and choose Online.
Example subject terms of possible interest:
Example Print Books and E-Books of Interest
A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution by Call Number: Ebook - Access online using link in VirgoISBN: 9780195388442Publication Date: 2009Computers, now the writer's tool of choice, are still blamed by skeptics for a variety of ills, from speeding writing up to the point of recklessness, to complicating or trivializing the writing process, to destroying the English language itself. A Better Pencil puts our complex, still-evolving hate-love relationship with computers and the internet into perspective, describing how the digital revolution influences our reading and writing practices, and how the latest technologies differ from what came before. The book explores our use of computers as writing tools in light of the history of communication technology, a history of how we love, fear, and actually use our writing technologies - not just computers, but also typewriters, pencils, and clay tablets. Dennis Baron shows that virtually all writing implements - and even writing itself - were greeted at first with anxiety and outrage: the printing press disrupted the "almost spiritual connection" between the writer and the page; the typewriter was "impersonal and noisy" and would "destroy the art of handwriting." Both pencils and computers were created for tasks that had nothing to do with writing. Pencils, crafted by woodworkers for marking up their boards, were quickly repurposed by writers and artists. The computer crunched numbers, not words, until writers saw it as the next writing machine. Baron also explores the new genres that the computer has launched: email, the instant message, the web page, the blog, social-networking pages like MySpace and Facebook, and communally-generated texts like Wikipedia and the Urban Dictionary, not to mention YouTube.Here then is a fascinating history of our tangled dealings with a wide range of writing instruments, from ancient papyrus to the modern laptop. With dozens of illustrations and many colorful anecdotes, the book will enthrall anyone interested in language, literacy, or writing.
Embracing Chatbots in Higher Education: The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Teaching, Administration, and Scholarship by Call Number: Ebook - Access online using link in VirgoISBN: 9781040019580Publication Date: 2024This book explores the integration of AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT into higher education for instructional and communication purposes. The author emphasizes the responsibility of higher education institutions to equip students with advanced skills for writing with AI assistance, and prepare them for an increasingly AI-driven world. Offering numerous practical tips, the book demonstrates how universities can increase student success, and stem the rising cost of higher education by employing AI tools. The chapters discuss streamlining tasks such as grading, providing feedback, and handling administrative duties, to show how educators can be enabled to focus on more meaningful aspects of their work. The author also reflects on the philosophical and ethical considerations and potential pitfalls of relying on AI in higher education, including concerns about academic integrity and the importance of human input in the learning process. The author offers a responsible and informed approach to incorporating the new powerful tools into the academic landscape. This volume will be a key resource for higher education faculty and administrators seeking to navigate the complex intersection of AI and writing
A History of Communication Technology by Call Number: Ebook - Access online using link in VirgoISBN: 9780429560712Publication Date: 2021This book is a comprehensive illustrated account of the technologies and inventions in mass communication that have accelerated the advancement of human culture and society. A History of Communication Technology covers a timeline in the history of mass communication that begins with human prehistory and extends all the way to the current digital age. Using rich, full-color graphics and diagrams, the book details the workings of various mass communication inventions, from paper-making, printing presses, photography, radio, TV, film, and video, to computers, digital devices, and the Internet. Readers are given insightful narratives on the social impact of these technologies, brief historical accounts of the inventors, and sidebars on the related technologies that enabled these inventions.
The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, A Philosophy, A Warning by Call Number: Ebook - Access online using link in VirgoISBN: 9780691229683Publication Date: 2022In The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, Justin Smith offers an original deep history of the internet, from the ancient to the modern world--uncovering its surprising origins in nature and centuries-old dreams of radically improving human life by outsourcing thinking to machines and communicating across vast distances. Yet, despite the internet's continuing potential, Smith argues, the utopian hopes behind it have finally died today, killed by the harsh realities of social media, the global information economy, and the attention-destroying nature of networked technology. Ranging over centuries of the history and philosophy of science and technology, Smith shows how the "internet" has been with us much longer than we usually think. He draws fascinating connections between internet user experience, artificial intelligence, the invention of the printing press, communication between trees, and the origins of computing in the machine-driven looms of the silk industry. At the same time, he reveals how the internet's organic structure and development root it in the natural world in unexpected ways that challenge efforts to draw an easy line between technology and nature. Combining the sweep of intellectual history with the incisiveness of philosophy, The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is cuts through our daily digital lives to give a clear-sighted picture of what the internet is, where it came from, and where it might be taking us in the coming decades.
Loath to Print: The Reluctant Scientific Author, 1500-1750 by Call Number: Ebook - Access online using link in VirgoISBN: 9781421443683Publication Date: 2022Rather than embracing the printing press, scientific authors often disliked and distrusted it. In many cases, they sought to avoid putting their work into print altogether. Nicole Howard takes a fresh look at early modern printing technology from the perspective of the natural philosophers and physicians who relied on it to share ideas. She offers a new perspective on scientific publishing in the early modern period, one that turns the celebration of print on its head. Exploring both these scholars' attitudes and their strategies for navigating the publishing world, Howard argues that scientists had many concerns, including the potential for errors to be introduced into their works by printers, the prospect of having their work pirated, and most worrisome, the likelihood that their works would be misunderstood by an audience ill-prepared to negotiate the complexities of the ideas, particularly those that were mathematical or philosophical.
Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies: The Story of Invisible Ink from Herodotus to al-Qaeda by Call Number: Ebook - Access online using link in VirgoISBN: 9780300179255Publication Date: 2014The first history of invisible ink revealed through thrilling stories about scoundrels and heroes and their ingenious methods for concealing messages. Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies is a book about concealing and revealing secret communications. It is the first history of invisible writing, uncovered through stories about scoundrels and heroes. Spies were imprisoned or murdered, adultery unmasked, and battles lost because of faulty or intercepted secret communications. Yet, successfully hidden writing helped save lives, win battles, and ensure privacy; occasionally it even changed the course of history. Kristie Macrakis combines a storyteller's sense of drama with a historian's respect for evidence in this page-turning history of intrigue and espionage, love and war, magic and secrecy. From the piazzas of ancient Rome to the spy capitals of the Cold War, Macrakis's global history reveals the drama and importance of invisible ink. From Ovid's advice to use milk for illicit love notes, to John Gerard's dramatic escape from the Tower of London aided by orange juice ink messages, to al-Qaeda's hidden instructions in pornographic movies, this book presents spellbinding stories of secret messaging that chart its evolution in sophistication and its impact on history.
Quirky Qwerty: A Biography of the Typewriter and its many Characters by Call Number: Ivy Stacks - Place request to have sent to on Grounds LibraryISBN: 9780142002704Publication Date: 2003This charming book whisks the reader through a fascinating, light-hearted history of an object most people take for granted: the keyboard. Recounting the development of the modern typing system millions use everyday - named for the first six letters on the keyboard - Lundmark taps out a neat archaeology of each letter and symbol and brings the discussion into the 21st century by addressing the role of punctuation in the digital age. Lundmark's vast knowledge, solid research and easy, friendly style make this book perfect for the casual word-buff and the experienced linguist.
Script and Scribble: The Rise & Fall of Handwriting by Call Number: Ivy Stacks - Place request to have sent to on Grounds LibraryISBN: 9781933633671Publication Date: 2009This book explore the history of handwriting and tackles the importance of writing by hand and its place in our increasingly electronic society. Weaving together the evolution of writing implements and scripts, pen-collecting societies and the growing popularity of handwriting analysis, the author asks the question: Is writing by hand really no longer necessary in today's busy world?'
Who Wrote This? How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing by Call Number: Ebook - Access online using link in VirgoISBN: 9781503637900Publication Date: 2023Would you read this book if a computer wrote it? Would you even know? And why would it matter? Today's eerily impressive artificial intelligence writing tools present us with a crucial challenge: As writers, do we unthinkingly adopt AI's time-saving advantages or do we stop to weigh what we gain and lose when heeding their siren call? To understand how AI is redefining what it means to write and think, linguist and educator Naomi Baron leads us on a journey connecting the dots between human literacy and today's technology. From nineteenth century lessons in composition, to mathematician Alan Turing's work creating a machine for deciphering war-time messages, to contemporary engines like ChatGPT, Baron gives readers a spirited overview of the emergence of both literacy and AI, and a glimpse of their possible future. As the technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and fluent, it's tempting to take the easy way out and let AI do the work for us. Baron cautions that such efficiency isn't always in our interest. As AI plies us with suggestions or full-blown text, we risk losing not just our technical skills but the power of writing as a springboard for personal reflection and unique expression. Funny, informed, and conversational, Who Wrote This? urges us as individuals and as communities to make conscious choices about the extent to which we collaborate with AI. The technology is here to stay. Baron shows us how to work with AI and how to spot where it risks diminishing the valuable cognitive and social benefits of being literate.
