ENGL 01A Truesdale

Use scholarly books or book chapters when you need more depth on a topic. Remember that a chapter is a source; you don't have to read an entire book for it to be useful. Use the table of contents (near the front of the book) and the index (at the back of the book) to see if there are any chapters or particular pages that may discuss a particular aspect of your topic.

• Example: "Understanding Poverty and Our Moral Responsibility" is a chapter from the electronic version of the book Turning High-Poverty Schools Into High-Performing Schools. 
• Example: "Pulling Families Apart" is a chapter from the electronic version of the book Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America

Watch the Video

Learn more about the structure of scholarly books in the following video. 

"How Library Stuff Works: Scholarly Books" (2:29) by McMaster Libraries is licensed under CC BY 3.0

These are some electronic and print examples available through the library that relate to your essay prompts. You can find more through OneSearch and EBSCO eBooks. 

Major Components

The list below describes the common components of scholarly books, though not every section may be represented.

• Title page
  • provides the publication information you need to properly cite the book, such as the complete title (sometimes, book have subtitles), names of all authors or editors, edition of the book if there is more than one, name of the publisher, city of publication, & date of publication
• Table of contents
  • provides a list of the chapters with the corresponding page numbers
  • may give a general idea of the topics covered in the book, as well as a sense of how the book is arranged (e.g., chronologically)
• List of illustrations
  • provides a list of photographs, drawings, tables, or other types of illustrations used to support the contents of the book, usually with corresponding page numbers
• Preface, forward, or introduction
  • provides the reader with the author's intention or purpose for writing the book, as well as a sense of the kind of research that was used to produce the book
• Bibliography, references list, etc.
  • a list of sources that were used to create the book or a list of additional sources on the topic
  • may be located at the ends of chapters throughout the book, or at the end of the book
• Index
  • located at the back of the book, the index is an alphabetical list of the specific subjects in the book, along with the corresponding page numbers
  • may provide names, dates, events, geographic locations, and other terms related to the contents of the book
  • browsing an index is an excellent way to identify exactly where in the book relevant information may be located
  • can also provide subject terms and keywords that might be useful for further research on a topic.

You don't have to read an entire book for it to be useful for your research. There may be a few pages or even a chapter or two that may have the most relevant information that you can incorporate into your research project. 

Watch the Video

Learn some strategies to pinpoint relevant information in a scholarly book in the following video. 

"How to Read a Book for Research" (2:29) is by RIT Libraries