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Literary Research Guide

This LibGuide offers tips and suggestions on researching authors, novels, poetry, and other literary topics.

Research in Education

English and English Education majors will face a variety of research challenges throughout the course of their studies, some of them common to students in other disciplines, others unique to the field. Necessary resources will come in all formats, both virtual and physical.

Under the former heading, the Library offers several literature-focused databases (Literature Online, Gale Literary Index, Children's Literature Comprehensive, etc.), other relevant general purpose databases (Credo Reference, Academic Search Complete), and a robust collection of ebooks. But successful English majors will also need to spend time roaming the stacks at Arrendale, where they will find novels, poetry collections, literary anthologies, and volumes of criticism.

To write a truly engaging English paper, students will need to go beyond mere fact-reporting in their papers. Literature is art, and as such, the reader's subjective interpretation of the work will be a vital element of any essay or paper. Framing and conveying these interpretations will be a challenge, but knowledge of specialized vocabulary will help organize the rush of ideas. To get you started, this guide includes a beginner's glossary of literary terms and definitions.

Whenever one of the libraries is open, there is someone who can help you with your work! Hours of operation for the Arrendale Library are posted on the library's web site, and you can always find telephone numbers in the footer of all Library webpages. If you need less immediate assistance, you can use the Ask a Librarian! service to send us e-mail requests for advice.

The preferred style guide of the English Department is The Modern Language Association Style Guide, 7th Edition, popularly referred to as MLA. MLA is the accepted standard for making citations and references in your English papers. Here is a detailed guide to that manual from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab, the Purdue OWL. For more information, please visit the MLA website. As always, feel free to contact any librarian if you have a question.