2. I have been having kind of a hard time trying to come up with something to research that relates to both Ender's Game and the things we have been talking about in class. I was so focused on the battle school part of the novel that I overlooked the Peter/Valentine aspect. I looked back at those chapters and realized that Peter and Valentine were basically doing what everyone in my English 295 class is doing, establishing an online identity. Granted, while Peter wanted to use the influence he gained through the "nets" to take over the world, we are trying to establish ourselves and our ideas in new ways in order to communicate with others who have similar interests. I think I want to focus on the communication issues Ender's Game raises, both digital and traditional.
I have discovered literary criticism on Ender's Game to be slightly scarce. This was surprising to me. The book is over 25 years old and I thought it was popular enough to be of interest to at least a few scholars. Luckily, a few of the themes and issues in Ender's Game are being discussed in conjunction with other novels. I chose to use JSTOR to further my search and see if my topic is worthwhile.
3. JSTOR: doing a quick Google search I discovered JSTOR is an acronym for "journal storage." JSTOR is an online database dedicated to the humanities and social science titles that, according to the blurb from the HBLL, "have proven themselves vital to these disciplines and which have many years of publication."
4. I went to the JSTOR home page and typed in "Ender's Game" to make sure I would get at least one result. After I was pleasantly surprised at the number of articles, I refined my search by also entering "AND (communication)." The results yielded an abnormal amount of articles about terrorism so I further refined my search with "NOT (terrorism)." As I searched, I found the "save citation" option to be quite helpful. There is also an email option, allowing you to send a list of your sources to yourself if you need to. After sifting through a couple pages of articles I ended up with a few that look promising.
5. Source citation:
O'brien, David G, and Bauer, Eurydice Bouchereau. "Review: Essay Book Review: New Literacies and the Institution of Old Learning." Reading Research Quarterly 40.1 (2005): 120-131. Web. May 27 2011.
6. This article discusses the digital divide, new forms of learning and briefly incorporates Ender's Game.
7. I was happy to find this article because it discusses many of the topics we have been touching on in class. I think I am starting to have a better idea of where to go with my research.
I'm so glad that you have decided to focus on the theme of communication in Ender's Game -- it quickly narrows your research and ties in obviously with the digital culture aspect of our course. Perhaps you need to read this source (or the work it is reviewing) and develop your thoughts more fully in light of the novel and the perspective you are starting to articulate now.
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