This course is an introduction to the related tasks of locating and studying primary materials—usually manuscripts or printed documents—that are the foundations of the scholarly enterprise. Knowing how to find such materials and how to ask good questions about them can lead to genuine discoveries: discovery of previously unknown materials or the discovery of new significance about materials already known. This course also offers practical preparation for planning and funding an archival research trip, and for studying a literary work’s textual and contextually relevant histories.

Some of the readings will be articles chosen by the students. Assignments will include a travel grant application, a book review of a scholarly edition, and an essay on a "textual problem."