ENG 102: Research

In general, there are three types of resources or sources of information: primary, secondary, and tertiary.  It is important to understand these types and to know what type is appropriate for your coursework prior to searching for information.

Primary sources are original materials on which other research is based, including:

• original written works – poems, diaries, court records, interviews, surveys, and original research/fieldwork, and
• research published in scholarly/academic journals.

Secondary sources are those that describe or analyze primary sources, including:

• reference materials – dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, and
• books and articles that interpret, review, or synthesize original research/fieldwork.

Tertiary sources are those used to organize and locate secondary and primary sources.

• Indexes – provide citations that fully identify a work with information such as author, titles of a book, artile, and/or journal, publisher and publication date, volume and issue number and page numbers.
• Abstracts – summarize the primary or secondary sources,
• Databases – are online indexes that usually include abstracts for each primary or secondary resource, and may also include a digital copy of the resource.

Merriam-Webster.com

• Early Modern Literary Studies

  A refereed journal serving as a formal arena for scholarly discussion and as an academic resource for researchers in the area. Articles in EMLS examine English literature, literary culture, and language during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

• The English Association Poetry Portal

  Resource site for poetry and poets - curated by The University of Leicester.

• Literary Criticism as a Tool for Interpreting Literature

  An essay by Steven Hale, Humanities Division, DeKalb College on why criticism is useful. Last updated 3-4-97

• LiteraryHistory.com

  Links to web pages on several hundred 19th and 20th Century American and British writers. Pages selected for the quality of the content.

• Literary Resources on the Net

  Huge collection of criticism, background, and actual texts of literature from Classical to current. From a professor at Rutgers University.

• Nobel Prizes in Literature

  Nobel Prize Internet Archives. Lists links to winners from the present back to 1901. The list is also available alphabetically by author's last name. The page listing the individual will have links to biographical and critical information.

• PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Resource and Reference Guide

  Large collection of information on specific authors, time periods, types of literature, and big ideas that have affected literature. Much of it is bibliographies, but there are also outlines of topics that are sort of like class notes.

• Poetry.org

  Resource site for poetry and poets.

• Poetry Foundation

  Collections of poetry published in Poetry Magazine, including audio poems.

• Voice of the Shuttle: Literatures Other than English

  Links to over 20 non-English literary sites. From Alan Liu of THe University of California Santa Barbara.

• Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color

  Criticism and biographies of women writers who are/were African American, Asian American, Chicana/Latina, Arab American, Indigenous/Native American. Good source for nonmainstream writers who may not get coverage elsewhere. From the University of Minnesota

Citation Resources