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Welcome to the English Research Guide. This page contains general information for research in English. For information specific to disciplines within the department of English Language and Literatures please use the links below.

Anthology: A collection of texts. Often you'll use an anthology in a class that covers a large time period, genre, topic, or region. Many anthologies contain excellent supporting materials and background information. For example, see: Women Writers in Renaissance England: An Annotated Anthology, The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry, or The Norton Anthology of American Literature.

Bibliography: A bibliography can be the list of sources at the end of your paper. It can also be a book of recommended sources on an author's work or a book of all the editions of an author's work. Use a bibliography to find out about differences in editions or to find secondary sources. For example, see: A Bibliography of Jane Austen, Toni Morrison: An Annotated Bibliography, or William Faulkner: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism Since 1988.

Companions and Handbooks: Literary or linguistic companions and handbooks may provide detailed definitions of terms or theories, character descriptions, and recommended resources for further reading. For example, see: The Handbook of Bilingualism, A Handbook to Literature, The Oxford Companion to American Literature, or A Companion to Jane Austen. Some handbooks provide information on how to do something (e.g., the MLA Handbook describes how to prepare a document and cite sources).

Concordance: A searchable or browsable index of all the words in a text or collection of texts. Use a concordance to see where (or how often) a word appears in a text. Many concordances are online. For example, see: Opensource Shakespeare's Concordance of Shakespeare's Complete Works,  eChaucer's Chaucer Concordance, or the Ulysses Concordance.

Index: An index can be a list of words or phrases in the back of a book that shows where those words or phrases appear throughout the book. It's also another term for a publication of citations or a database (e.g., The Arts and Humanities Citation Index).