English Literature  Tags: english literature engl literary culture criticism american_literature new zealand_literature  

It might seem obvious, but the first step is to make sure you understand the topic.

1) Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question

2) Work out why the topic is being offered, and what makes the topic interesting. Is it:

controversial? complicated? does it require comparisons?

3) What parts of the topic do you already know plenty about? Where are the gaps in your understanding or knowledge?

Answering the above questions will help you formulate a search strategy.

Reading about the topic will give you further ideas -you may want to come back and define your topic a little more later.

Use dictionaries and encyclopaedias to find definitions and background information. Articles from specialized subject encyclopaedias are authoritative and often substantial.

See:

• reference resources for English Literature
  

• How much information do you need? Lecturers often give guidelines on the number of sources you should use.
• Do you need current information or is older material relevant? Sometimes you might need both, as you might have to give both the historic background and the current thinking on a topic.
• Do you need primary sources that give original accounts or reviews from that time, or secondary sources which are interpretations of someone work? Or both?
  

If you don't understand what you have to do for an assignment, ask your lecturer, your tutor or someone at the Learning Skills Centre.

The catalogue lists journal titles, but not the titles of the articles inside the journals. To find these you'll need to search the recommended databases for Englsih

Read more on:

• where to find English Literature journal articles
• tutorial on finding an article
  

If you can't find the kind of information you want on these databases, ask a subject librarian - we can help you choose the right database and the right keywords to use.

References recommended on reading lists will already have been evaluated for quality. You'll need to evaluate sources that you find yourself. The quality of your information has an effect on the quality of your assignment.

Read more on:

• evaluating your sources

See our writing guides page for books which have useful hints for writing in literary studies and humanities subjects.

Visit the Learning Skills Centre for workshops and/or personal help.

Make a note of the sources that you are using as you write, including page numbers for any quotations. This will make it easier and quicker to create your bibliography.