“To produce a mighty book,
you must choose a mighty theme.”
Herman Melville (1819-91)
This bastion of academic goodness is at your complete disposal as an IPFW student and you should certainly take full advantage of everything here as well as links found on the Helmke Library website for it is uncommon to have access to such a grand assemblage of scholarly resources. You can find everything from the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary (OED Online) to outside links for writing help from our friends at Purdue (OWL) to an astounding array of high resolution scans of original manuscripts and books from the Early English Period (1475-1661), plus a nearly infinite amount of other beneficial sources to aid you in your academic pursuits.
Purdue Online Writing Lab
Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) has been a tremendous resource for me during college. Whether it was simple writing help to a bit more difficult citing issues, their information has been invaluable.
- Academic Writing
- Rhetorical Situation
From their page: “Writing instructors and many other professionals who study language use the phrase “rhetorical situation.” This term refers to any set of circumstances that involves at least one person using some sort of communication to modify the perspective of at least one other person.”
- Paragraphs and Paragraphing
- Essay Writing
- Mechanics
- Grammar
- MLA Formatting & Style Guide
- APA Style Guide
Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
From IPFW's description: “The OED Online traces word usage from first recorded appearance to the present, offering examples from recognizable sources, presenting etymological analysis, variant spellings, and pronunciations in International Phonetic Alphabet, and providing authoritative definitions for more than 500,000 words.”
A few favorite words:- Modicum, n.
- Mortal Coil, noun phrase
- Gallimaufry, n.
“A small quantity or portion; a moderate or limited amount. (Often modified by little, small, tiny.)”
“The bustle or turmoil of this mortal life. A Shakespearian expression which has become a current phrase.”
transf. and fig. “A heterogeneous mixture, a confused jumble, a ridiculous medley.”
Oxford Reference Online Premium
From IPFW's description: “Provides a single interface for searching more than 20 Oxford encyclopedias and 175 language and subject dictionaries and reference works, including the Oxford Companion series, Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and Visual English Dictionary. Covers all areas of science, medicine, humanities, social sciences, and business.”
MLA International Bibliography
Under the proxy of the Modern Language Association, this resource spans a collective of well-researched scholarly articles, books, journals, and more in the field of literature and associated languages.
JSTOR
A scholarly resource that represents a full-text searchable database of more than 1500 important academic journals—a great primary source index.
Early English Books Online
High-resolution, quality academic scans of early books that range from 1475 to 1661, common era. You can see a few great examples such as the original 1667 publication of John Milton's, Paradise Lost or William Shakespeare's The Tempest from 1674.