research paper about english literature

How to write a Research Paper – Step by Step Guide

A Step-by-Step Guide to writing a research paper

Introduction:

Writing a research paper is a job that we all have to do in our academic life. A research paper represents the ideas of the person who writes it. In simple words, a research paper presents an original idea and substantiates it with logical arguments. Writing a research paper in the domain of English literature is very different compared to writing research articles in other domains. Literature inclines towards abstract thinking. In other subjects, one has to stick to the facts. Howsoever you try, disputing an idea of science becomes very difficult. On the other hand, to contradict an idea in the purview of literature, you just need a systematic flow of arguments (logical and valid) and it’s done! So, writing a research paper in the field of English literature becomes easy if arguments are strong, in a sequence and wisely crafted.

Step 1: Choose the topic of your research paper:

This is one of the most vital parts. Choosing a topic is a crucial choice to make and it has to be taken seriously. You have to choose the area of your interest in English literature and then narrow it down to the area of your expertise. You cannot write a paper on the topics which are wider than a Doctoral thesis! So, you have to be precise and wise while choosing your topic.

An example: Suppose a person has adequate knowledge about Matthew Arnold. Can he write a research article on Arnold alone? No! He will need to bring the topic to some specific idea related to Arnold. The possibilities may be in his prose or poetry writing. In certain states in India, students work on topics like “Matthew Arnold as a poet” and “Matthew Arnold as a great prose writer” which is invalid, injustice and academically a sin. It should not be encouraged! Someone being a poet cannot be a subject of a research article. Any special quality of someone’s poetry writing can certainly be an interesting topic of a research paper – now you must have the idea. ‘Hopelessness and Despair in the poetry of Matthew Arnold’ can be a topic for a brilliant research paper. The hint is very simple – narrow it down to the speciality and you will have your topic ready!

Read in detail – How to choose a research topic?

Step 2: Collect information – primary and secondary sources:

Now that you have selected a topic for your research paper, you should find ‘credible sources’ that substantiate your ‘paper’s purpose’. Sources are divided into two major categories – primary and secondary. Primary sources are the materials produced by the people who feature in your topic. In the case of our example above, poetry by Matthew Arnold and other writings by him will be primary sources. Secondary sources are the writings ‘about the topic and anything related to the topic’. Therefore, you have to browse the internet, visit a library, check your bookshelves and do anything that will bring you information about the topic and anything that relates to the topic.

Step 3: Plan your research article:

Before you begin writing the paper, it’s always wise to have a clear plan in your mind. Planning a research paper in the domain of English literature should always begin with a clear ‘purpose of research’ in your mind. Why are you writing this paper? What point do you want to make? How significant is that point? Do you have your arguments to support the point (or idea) that you want to establish? Do you have enough credible sources that support the arguments you want to make in the body of the paper? If all the answers are positive, move to the next step and begin writing the drafts for your paper.

Step 4: Writing the first draft of your research paper:

Now it comes to writing the paper’s first draft. Before you begin writing, have a clear picture of your paper in your mind. It will make the job easier. What does a research paper look like? Or, rather, what’s the ideal structure of a research paper?

Beginning – Introduce your idea that drives the research paper. How do you approach that idea? What is your paper – an analysis, review of a book or two ideas compared or something else. The introduction must tell the story of your research in brief – ideas, a highlight or arguments and the glimpse of conclusion. It is generally advised that the introduction part should be written in the end so that you have the final research paper clearly justified, introduced and highlighted at the beginning itself.

Middle – And here goes the meat of your paper. All that you have to emphasise, euphemise, compare, collaborate and break down will take place in the middle or the body of your research paper. Please be careful once you begin writing the body of your paper. This is what will impact your readers (or the examiners or the teachers) the most. You have to be disciplined, systematic, clever and also no-nonsense. Make your points and support them with your arguments. Arguments should be logical and based on textual proofs (if required). Analyse, compare or collaborate as required to make your arguments sharp and supportive to the proposition that you make. The example topic of a research paper that we chose somewhere above in this article – Hopelessness and Despair in the Poetry of Matthew Arnold will require the person writing this paper to convince the readers (and so on) that actually Arnold’s poetry gives a sign of the two negative attitudes picked as the topic. It would be wise to analyse the works (and instances from them, to be specific) The Scholar Gypsy, Empedocles on Etna, Dover Beach and others that support the proposition made in the topic for research. You can use primary and secondary sources and cite them wisely as required. You have to convince the readers of your paper that what you propose in the purpose of the research paper stands on the ground as a logical and valid proposition.

End – Or the conclusion of a research paper that should be written wisely and carefully. You can use a few of your strongest arguments here to strike the final balance and make your proposition justified. After a few of your strongest arguments are made, you can briefly summarise your research topic and exhibit your skills of writing to close the lid by justifying why you are proposing that you have concluded what you began. Make sure that you leave the least possible loopholes for conjecture after you conclude your paper.

Reference: You can use two of the most used styles (or rather only used) to give a list of references in your paper – APA or MLA. Whatever you choose needs to be constant throughout the paper.

To summarise, here is what a research paper should look like:

Introduction
A list of References

Step 5: Read & re-read your draft: It gives you the chance to judge your research paper and find the possible shortcomings so that you can make amends and finalise your paper before you print it out for your academic requirements. While you read your first draft, treat it with a purpose to find contradictions and conjecture points as much as possible. Wherever you find the chances of contradiction possible, you have to make those arguments forceful and more logical and substantiate them to bypass the fear of being contradicted (and defeated). Let us be clear – it is English literature we are dealing with and there will be contradictions. Don’t fear it. However, make sure your arguments are not defeated. The defeat means your paper will not hold up to the scrutiny of the experts. And this is why you need to read and re-read the first draft of your literature research paper.

Step 6: Finalise & print your research paper: After reading your paper 1 or 2 times, you should be sure what needs to be changed and otherwise. Finalise it so that it appears the best and sounds good to be the final version. Print your work in the best possible quality and you are done! If there is a verbal question-answer associated with the paper you prepare, make sure you understand it completely and are ready for the questions from any possible side of your topic.

This was our step-by-step guide to writing a research paper in the field of English literature. We hope you have found it useful. We will write more articles associated with the concept – such as choosing a research topic, building arguments, writing powerful introductions. Make sure you subscribe to our website so that you are notified whenever we post a new article on English Literature Education! All the best with your paper!

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Have something to say? Add your comments:

9 Comments . Leave new

Thank you so much, explanation about research work is a nice manner. (private information retracted)

Very well written article! Thanks for this. I was confused about my research paper. I am sure I can do it now.

Quite resourceful. thank you.

Very nice reseach paper

It was very nice reading, helpful for writing research paper.

Thanks for your kind sharing of the information

Normally, I don’t leave any replies after reading a blog, but I couldn’t help this time. I found this blog very useful. So, I’m writing my research paper and I’ve been racking my brain and the internet for a good topic, plus trying to learn how to write a research paper. Thank you so much for putting this up!

I want to work on The French Revolution and its impact on romantic poetry. Please help in this regard.

Thanks a lot for the information.

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English is delighted to announce its 2022 Postgraduate Essay Prize. It is open to all students currently registered on a PhD and writing on a topic in English Literature. Winners get a cash prize and publication in the journal, while all entries are considered for publication and receive specialist peer review. Explore the past winning essays .

Winner : Georgia Walton, 'Emerson and the Lyric Essay in Maggie Nelson’s Bluets'

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Journal › Top Scopus Indexed Journals in English Literature

Top Scopus Indexed Journals in English Literature

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on June 15, 2020 • ( 0 )

1. English Historical Review -(OXFORD) (https://academic.oup.com/ehr/pages/About)

2. ASIATIC: IITUM Journal of English Language & Literature ( https://journals.iium.edu.my/asiatic/index.php/AJELL )

3. English for Specific Purposes ( https://www.journals.elsevier.com/english-for-specific-purposes )

4. The Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) ( https://www.aate.org.au/journals/english-in-australia )

5. English in Education (Wiley) ( https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17548845 )

6. English World-Wide | A Journal of Varieties of English ( https://benjamins.com/catalog/eww )

7. European Journal of English Studies– Taylor & Francis Online ( https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/neje20/current )

8. Journal of English for Academic Purposes – Elsevier B.V. ( https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-english-for-academic-purposes )

9. Journal of English Linguistics- SAGE Journals ( https://journals.sagepub.com/home/eng )

10. Research in the Teaching of English-NCTE ( https://www2.ncte.org/resources/journals/research-in-the-teaching-of-english/ /)

11. The English Classroom – Regional Institute of English ( http://www.riesielt.org/english-classroom-journal )

12. World Englishes (Wiley Blackwell) ( https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1467971x )

13. English Language & Linguistics – Cambridge Core ( https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics )

14. English Today-The International Review of the English Language-Cambridge Core ( https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-today )

The role of literary fiction in facilitating social science research

Bryan Yazell ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2263-3488 1 , 2 ,
Klaus Petersen 2 , 3 ,
Paul Marx 3 , 4 , 5 &
Patrick Fessenbecker 6 , 7

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 8 , Article number: 261 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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Scholars in literature departments and the social sciences share a broadly similar interest in understanding human development, societal norms, and political institutions. However, although literature scholars are likely to reference sources or concepts from the social sciences in their published work, the line of influence is much less likely to appear the other way around. This unequal engagement provides the occasion for this paper, which seeks to clarify the ways social scientists might draw influence from literary fiction in the development of their own work as academics: selecting research topics, teaching, and drawing inspiration for projects. A qualitative survey sent to 13,784 social science researchers at 25 different universities asked participants to describe the influence, if any, reading works of literary fiction plays in their academic work or development. The 875 responses to this survey provide numerous insights into the nature of interdisciplinary engagement between these disciplines. First, the survey reveals a skepticism among early-career researchers regarding literature’s social insights compared to their more senior colleagues. Second, a significant number of respondents recognized literary fiction as playing some part in shaping their research interests and expanding their comprehension of subjects relevant to their academic scholarship. Finally, the survey generated a list of literary fiction authors and texts that respondents acknowledged as especially useful for understanding topics relevant to the study of the social sciences. Taken together, the results of the survey provide a fuller account of how researchers engage with literary fiction than can be found in the pages of academic journals, where strict disciplinary conventions might discourage out-of-the-field engagement.

Conceptualizing science diplomacy in the practitioner-driven literature: a critical review

Pierre-Bruno Ruffini

Lifting the smokescreen of science diplomacy: comparing the political instrumentation of science and innovation centres

Elisabeth Epping

A bibliometric analysis of cultural heritage research in the humanities: The Web of Science as a tool of knowledge management

Ionela Vlase & Tuuli Lähdesmäki

Introduction

Interdisciplinary research has become the buzzword of university managers and funding agencies. It is said that researchers need to think out of the box, be innovative and agile, and—last but not least—be curious about other disciplines in order to solve the complex challenges of the modern world. The tension inevitably generated by calls for more interdisciplinary work between university administrators on the one side and researchers on the other risks obscuring a fundamental question: what exactly is new about interdisciplinary research in the first place? For all the handwringing about interdisciplinarity, there is no clear consensus about what the boundaries of a given discipline are in the first place. Debates have waged over the last several decades about the divisions between the sciences and the humanities, their origins, and possible methods for rectifying them. Perhaps most famously, British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow identified “two cultures” in the academy separated by “a gulf of mutual incomprehension” ( 1961 , p. 4). According to Snow, “literary intellectuals” and “physical scientists” not only distrusted each other’s pronouncements, but fundamentally saw the world differently ( 1961 , p.4, 6). Although this assessment has been influential in framing these respective disciplines for decades, its presentation of a binary division between the hard sciences and the arts does not account for the fields of study with overlapping interests and, at times, borrowed methodological tools: the social sciences and literature departments.

The social sciences and literary studies share an indelible link by virtue of their twinned emergence as academic disciplines in the early twentieth century. Both disciplines in the broadest sense share a keen interest in understanding and describing human behavior and social relationships. However despite—or perhaps owing to—these similarities, the disciplines have historically identified themselves in terms of opposition. On one side, Émile Durkheim’s Rules of Sociological Method, published in 1895, defined the discipline in terms of positivism and quantitative study. On the other side, foundational literature scholars such as Matthew Arnold and F.R. Leavis understood literary study as a crucial component to the project of invigorating the national culture: to identify among the mass of popular culture the most elite examples of art. Critics in this early school of literary study therefore understood literature less as a mirror of society and more as a way to access what is best about cultural ideals or humanistic achievement (Arnold, 1873 ; Leavis, 2011 ). In this early context, social scientists were more interested in making society itself the object of study. While the features of each respective field have undoubtedly changed dramatically over the past century, this underlying division regarding the “science” in the social science persists. If the social scientist and literature scholar can speak with some degree of shared comprehension, they nonetheless are beset by disciplinary boundaries that make the task of mutual exchange harder than it might otherwise appear.

The decision to better document the uses of literature within the social sciences was born from an overarching drive to understand literature’s impact on researchers that often escape notice. After all, literary scholars are in general familiar with (if not thoroughly informed by) the works of sociologists, economists, and political scientists. Moreover, they are likely to be comfortable both with using the toolset of the social sciences in their own work and, more to the point, citing sociologists such as Émile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, and Bruno Latour. Over the last decade, for instance, several prominent literary scholars have advocated for a descriptive model for analyzing literary texts modeled on the social sciences (e.g., Love 2010 ; Marcus and Love, 2016 ). This relatively recent turn to the social sciences does not begin to consider, of course, the much longer history of literary scholars drawing critical concepts from the Frankfurt School (such as Theodor Adorno or Jürgen Habermas) or, more significantly, the works of Karl Marx. All of which is to say, one can easily expect references to sources broadly associated with the social sciences when reading a literary studies monograph.

However, if it is clear that literary scholars are familiar with prominent works by social scientists, it is much less apparent if the reverse is true. In an essay in World Politics, the political scientist Cathie Jo Martin outlines the profound insight literary sources can offer the field. Novels and other literary fiction provide “a site for imagining policy”, help define shared group interests, and create narratives that legitimize systems of governance (Martin, 2019 , p. 432). Elsewhere, Nobel prize-winning economist Robert J. Shiller calls for greater engagement with literature and fiction in Narrative Economics (2019). However, as we show below, cases of social scientists explicitly acknowledging literary sources are few and far in between. Rather than articulate yet another call for better dialog between the disciplines, we instead seek greater insight into the way social scientists are already referring to, engaging with, or simply using literature in their field as researchers and teachers. As explained in detail below, this task is not as straightforward as it may seem.

Our project proceeded in two steps. The first was a qualitative study of social science articles that included references to literary authors drawn from the collection of social science journals cataloged on the JSTOR digital library. The evaluation of literary references captured in our study (outlined below) made it possible to track the proliferation of literary sources across social science research and to create a loose typology of these uses. For the second step, we developed a survey for social science researchers to elaborate on how, if at all, their work engages with works of literary fiction. Before going into the field, the survey was tested and discussed with a small number of academics to ensure that the items capture the concepts of interest. The survey was then sent electronically to 13,784 researchers at all stages (from PhD students to full professors) from the top 25 social science departments as ranked in 2019 by Times Higher Education (World University Rankings).

If academic departments are guardians of their disciplines, then this sample of prominent departments might reflect the international standard for their respective fields. In other words, researchers attached to these institutions may be more inclined to protect conventions than to go against the grain. In contrast, we can imagine that scholars at smaller schools, colleges, or cross-disciplinary research centers might be more inclined to engage with other disciplines. Focusing on the former institutions rather than the later, our survey finds hard test cases for our questions about the use of literary references in social sciences. Finally, by calling attention to the different forms of influence literature may (or may not) assume, the survey made it possible to dwell in more detail on how social scientists esteem literary fiction as a tool for understanding social concepts.

Before conducting our survey, we first developed a typology of what we term uses of literature within the social sciences. This typology is the result of an ongoing project seeking to understand how literature might already play a role in the social sciences, no matter how small this role might appear at first glance. Our investigations were further motivated by the distinct lack of sources on the subject. While there are a number of prominent cases that call for social scientists to incorporate the insights of literature into their research (e.g., Shiller, 2019 ) and teaching (e.g., Morson and Schapiro, 2017 ), there are hardly any that demonstrate how (and where) they might already be doing so. For those of us who wish to expound on the value of not only literature per se but the study of literature specifically, a thorough account of how experts in an adjacent field like social science might already incorporate literary objects in their scholarship is a critical starting point. The absence of a generalized account of the field therefore required us to generate our own.

To do so, we first devised a plan to comb through the entire catalog of published social science articles on JSTOR, which spans nearly a century’s worth of material. Our goal at this point was to identify and categorize where and how social scientists refer to literary fiction in their published work. As will become clear, this approach’s limitations—namely, its reliance on a pre-determined list of searchable terms—set the groundwork for our survey, which was designed to account for surprising or unexpected responses. Nevertheless, the survey provided valuable insight into the more fleeting references to literary fiction in published social science research.

A brief account of this JSTOR project is useful for contextualizing the results of our social science survey. First, it was necessary to generate a delimited archive of social science articles that use, in some shape or another, literary sources. For the sake of producing an adequate number of sources, we composed a list of search terms that consisted of 30 prominent Anglophone authors, along with two famous literary characters, Robinson Crusoe, and Sherlock Holmes (Fig. 1 ). To determine these search terms, we cross-referenced popular online media articles (including blogs, short essays, and user forums) that offered broad rankings of, for example, the most important authors of all time. To best address the historical breadth of the JSTOR catalog, the names were edited down further to focus on authors who published before the middle of the twentieth century. It goes without saying that this initial list was far from exhaustive. Instead, it was intended to produce a large enough body of results in order for us to further generate a working typology of literary references as they appeared in the articles. Footnote 1 Second, we conducted a qualitative analysis of these articles alongside the rough typology of uses Michael Watts, Professor of Economics at Purdue, outlines in his study of economics and literature—the only workable typology we found.

Chart displays search terms (author name or fictional character name) and their corresponding total number of appearances across all social science articles on JSTOR. Figure shows 19 most popular results from the compiled search term list.

According to Watts, economists who engage with literature to any degree tend to do so according to four different categories: 1. eloquent description of human behavior; 2. historical evidence conveying the context of a particular time or place; 3. Alternative accounts of rational behavior that complement or challenge economic theory; 4. Evidence of an antimarket/antibusiness orientation in esthetic works. ( 2002 , p. 377)

When viewed alongside the JSTOR articles, however, the limitations to Watts’s typology were apparent. Most immediately, the emphasis on what one might call deep or sustained engagements with literature means that his typology will not capture those more fleeting uses of literature that make up the vast majority of literary references in the social science archive. Once one recognizes these limits, it becomes clear that any categorization or typology of literature in social science must be sufficiently flexible enough to capture the many and often surprising ways that the disciplinary fields might intersect. Of course, this latter point is underscored by the fact that Watt’s original typology is concerned with economics only. By expanding our search to include the social sciences in general, we allow for a wider scale for evaluating literature’s usefulness as seen by, for instance, political scientists, social theorists, and behavioral economists. After reviewing the JSTOR set of articles, we expanded on Watt’s initial typology to produce a more encompassing categorization of literary uses that better accommodated the range of literary references as they appeared in the archive. Ultimately, we determined that an expanded typology of uses of literature as they appear in published social science articles must include several more categories, never mind the four in Watts’s initial outline:

Literature as argument

Causal Argument/Historical data: marks studies that see literature as an agent of historical change along the lines of something a historian of the period can recognize.

Alternate Explanation: notes studies that see literary writers as rival social theorists whose arguments warrant proper countering.

Philosophical Position: refers to studies that associate an author with an argument that is developed or sustained across that author’s body of work.

Literature as context

Historical Context: designates studies that use information from literary texts as a way of characterizing a particular historical period, without claiming that the work was an agent of change in the period.

Biography: refers to studies that cite biographical details of an author or literary source as a way of situating concurrent historical events.

Literature as metonym

Cultural Standard: names studies that refer to literary texts as a cultural metonym, for example using Shakespeare as a way of referring to Renaissance England or to Western Culture as a whole.

Parable: designates studies that refer to a literary object that has lost its original literary contextualization and now stands in for something else entirely (e.g., Robinson Crusoe as a parable for homo economicus).

Literature as decoration

Literary effects/style: accounts for those literary texts that are evoked subtly via an author’s style or phrasing.

Decoration: names instances when the references to a literary text appear merely decorative and play no significant role in the argument.

Nonfiction quote: denotes direction quotations attributed to authors outside their published works.

Literature as Inspiration: marks moments in which a literary text plays no direct role in the argument but inspired the scholar’s thinking.

Literature as Teaching Tool: acknowledges instances where scholars use literary texts within the classroom or to help explain a concept.

As this expanded typology suggests, our initial assessment of the JSTOR articles highlights literature’s wide range of applications within the social sciences (Fig. 2 ). Moreover, it jumpstarts a dialog on what, exactly, constitutes a use of literature within this field. After all, it seems significant that a great portion of literary references as captured in the JSTOR survey are essentially non-critical uses—pithy quotations from authors or famous literary epigrams—when viewed from the perspective of literary studies. Nonetheless, to account for these references to literature is to acknowledge something of the role literary fiction per se plays, if not in the entire field of social science research, then in the academic conventions of social science publishing.

Chart shows the proportion of literary typographies across JSTOR’s social science catalog from among our compiled search term list. The presented types originate from our expanded typography based on Watts’s categorisations.

At the same time, our attempts to expand this typology ran into several hurdles of its own. First and foremost, our ability to generate search results from the JSTOR archive was limited by the terms we used: because any search for “literature” or “fiction” produces too many non-applicable and generalized results, one must enter specific search terms (e.g., William Shakespeare; Virginia Woolf) to produce relevant results. Along similar lines, our typology can only take shape in view of these limited sources; it is after all possible that an author or literary text that did not appear on our initial list has been received by social scientists in ways that confound expectations beyond even our expanded typology.

Finally, our reliance on both pre-conceived search terms and archived research articles prevents us from evaluating the newest trends in both literature as well as social science research. As our survey results below demonstrate, there is ample evidence that literature produced within the last twenty years has an outsized impact on those social scientists who acknowledge literary fiction as an influence in their work. The conventions of academic publishing in non-literary fields, however, might prevent researchers from likewise acknowledging these contemporary examples in their published material in favor of more familiar, canonical examples. In view of the affordances and limitations to our initial JSTOR study, we decided to approach the subject of literature and social science from another direction: by going directly to the source.

If publications are the end products of academic work, the product does not always reflect all details of the research process. Nobody leaves the scaffolding standing when the house is completed; likewise, the notes, readings, and other sources of inspiration that lay the foundation for an article or academic monograph often go unacknowledged. To be sure, simply searching for references to literary fiction in the published text of these sources is likely to return some results—for instance, the frequent conflation of the homo economicus model with the protagonist of Robinson Crusoe, albeit in a manner that elides any reference to Daniel Defoe, the author (Watson, 2017 ). As the example of Crusoe suggests, the small pool of literary sources that appear in the text of social science articles cannot adequately account for the wide range of influences literature might have at all stages of research. To better capture these invisible or unacknowledged uses of literature in the social science, we decided to simply ask social scientists themselves. The survey asked a few simple questions on their use (or not) of fictional literature in any stage of their academic work. The survey questions are included in the supplementary material as supplementary note . We received 875 responses at a response rate of 7 percent, a number which we deemed acceptable for allowing us to detect some overall patterns. Given the use of THE rankings, the sample is dominated by North American and European social science departments. The sample includes all career stages: Ph.D students (35 pct.), postdocs and assistant professors (20 pct.), and tenured staff (42 pct.). It includes the four major social science disciplines: economics (20 pct.), sociology (31 pct.), political science (26 pct.), psychology (19 pct.), whereas a small group (4 pct.) identified with other disciplines. A full demographic breakdown (Table S.1) is included in the supplementary material .

Discussion: what do social scientists say?

To be clear, not all social scientists use literature in a manner conforming with our typology above or even consider literature a factor in their work life. In the survey, we focused on the non-explicit uses of literature and the considerations behind their uses. In other words, the survey is meant to supplement our findings from the study of social science journals from the JSTOR digital library. The survey should not be taken as a test of the above-mentioned categories developed from the empirical study of academic publications. Still, it is possible to glean some points of overlap between the two approaches. Several of these categories can be easily applied to responses from the survey, especially the categories relating to literature’s inspirational value or its usefulness as a teaching tool. At the same time, other categories that feature heavily in the published articles—especially “literature as decoration” and “literature as metonym”—were hardly mentioned at all in the survey responses. The gap between what social scientists say about literature and what appears in social science articles reiterates the value of the survey, which captures some of the underlying motivations for using literature (or not) that otherwise would not come across in view of published academic work.

Even considering the general self-selection bias—i.e., respondents who react positively to the idea of using literature are also more likely to participate in the survey—93 percent agreed that “Literature often contains important insights into the nature of society and social life”, while only 2 percent disagreed. However, it is one thing to acknowledge that literature offers general insights into life and quite another to affirm that literature plays a role in individual research biographies. To address this issue, we posed the question if “Reading literature played a role in the formation of your research questions or the development of your research projects.”

We were somewhat surprised to learn that this was the case for almost half of the respondents (46 precent agree or totally agree), and only a third (34 percent) rejected this premise (Table 1 ). Looking at the comments in the open sections shed light on this. For some researchers there was a very clear link. For example, one respondent explained: “Toni Morrison and other women of color (Ana Castillo, for example) greatly enriched my understanding of the role of gender in society (I am a man).”

Raising the bar even higher, we then asked about publications. Publications are arguably the most delicate matter in our survey. After all, publications can make or break careers inasmuch as they factor into promotions and tenure reviews. In response to our publishing question (“How often do you quote or in other ways use a work of fiction in your publications”), 25 percent recorded occasionally using literary fiction in some form and an additional 13 percent affirmed doing so often or very often. In other words, almost 40 percent of the respondents acknowledge using literary sources in their publications (Table 2 ).

However, it must be stressed that these uses vary in form and substance. Based on our qualitative assessment of a subset of social science sources (outlined above), we found that explicit engagements range from the superficial (e.g., brief quotations of famous quips or observations from literary sources), the decontextualized (e.g., Robinson Crusoe functions only as a model of economic behavior), to more sustained engagements with the arguments or ideas presented in literature (e.g., Thomas Piketty’s references to Jane Austen and Balzac in Capital in the Twenty-First Century). In other words, a great many of these applications of literature do not resemble the type of work one finds in literature departments. Moreover, the depth or method for engagement is rather unsystematic.

Of course, publications and research only constitute part of the work academics do at the university. Our survey also asked about teaching in order to capture other literary uses that published papers are unlikely to acknowledge. As noted above, Robinson Crusoe appears in textbooks on microeconomics in the figure of the homo economicus. Elsewhere, there are several examples of sources who call for incorporating literary fiction in the teaching of the social sciences in order to benefit from the imaginative social logics embedded in, for instance, science fiction novels (e.g., Rodgers et al., 2007 ; Hirschman et al., 2018 ). As our survey demonstrates, most of the respondents use or have used literary sources as pedagogical tools: less than a third (30 percent) never do so, most do so at least sometimes, and a few (12 percent) frequently use literature in their teaching (Table 3 ).

If we had expanded the category from literature to art in a wide sense (including, for example, movies, television series, paintings, and music) we suspect the numbers would have been significantly higher.

Finally, our survey provides some insight into what characterizes social scientists who use literature in their work. We generally find only small differences between disciplines within the field of social science, with economists marginally more skeptical of literature’s usefulness in the classroom than researchers in sociology, political science, and psychology (Table 3 ). This confirms earlier findings. A survey from 2006 showed that 57 percent of economist disagreed with the proposition that “In general, interdisciplinary knowledge is better than knowledge obtained by a single discipline.” For psychology, political science, and sociology the numbers were 9, 25 and 28 percent respectively (Fourcade et al., 2015 ).

Larger contrasts appear when considering the career stage of the researchers. We find a very clear general pattern of early-career, non-tenured researchers expressing more skepticism regarding literature’s insights compared to tenured and more senior researchers (Table 4 ). This pattern is most apparent when the respondents consider the use of literature in their own publications. A striking 75 percent of PhD students and 78 percent of postdocs have never quoted literature in their publications, compared to 48 percent in the senior professor group.

Arguably, this gap might simply reflect the much larger publication portfolio expected of senior professors in relation to early-career scholars, but the same pattern holds when we asked more general questions on the importance of literature.

This last point casts into relief some of the internal and generational gaps existing between senior researchers and junior and early-career researchers facing an increasingly precarious academic workplace. For early-career researchers, there is little immediate benefit to working outside established borders when recognition and professional assessment (such as promotions and tenure) still largely derive from work within disciplinary camps (Lyall, 2019 , p. 2). At the same time, stepping into uncharted territory requires one to navigate disciplinary traditions, departmental gatekeeping, and new methodologies. These professional limitations are what observers have in mind when they call interdisciplinary research risky at best (e.g., Callard and Fitzgerald, 2015 ) and “career suicide” at worst (Bothwell, 2016 ).

Rather than ascribing literary interests to some form of academic maturity, then, we suspect this gap between early and later-stage researchers partly reflects how disciplines work. In general terms, it is easy to imagine how the institutional pressures on early-career researchers can translate to a stricter adherence to disciplinary guidelines. Facing an unstable job market and competing for a limited pool of external funding, these scholars are highly dependent on the recognition of their peers and will tend to be more risk-adverse with respect to publications. As noted above, explicit signals of inter- or cross-disciplinary interests may sound appealing in the abstract (and may be promoted by international funding agencies) but they face much more skepticism within academic departments and hiring committees. As a result, using literature in academic publications—and perhaps explicitly cross-disciplinary research in general—is a luxury that only the more professionally-secure researchers can afford.

This explanation might account for the lack of explicit references to literary fiction in social science research, but not the absence of more indirect literature-research relationships. For example, 39 percent of PhD students “totally agree” that one can “learn a lot about what humans are like from literature” as opposed to 60 percent of associate professors and over half of professors. While outside the bounds of our current project, this generational gap may also be evidence of the diminishing presence of literature departments on university campuses after successive years of administrative funding cuts and public pressure against humanities-oriented education in general (Meranze, 2015 ). Fewer literature classes may result in as scenario where even advanced degree holders in an adjacent field like social science may be less studied in literature than their more senior colleagues.

What is the social scientist reading list?

There is no shortage of arguments for those in the social sciences to read literary fiction. As noted in the introduction above, there are a handful of social scientists in fields like sociology and economics who emphasize not only the general value of reading literature but also the profound insights literature can offer their research. However, beyond acknowledging the need to read in general, the question remains: which books to open, and which pages to turn? As is perhaps unsurprising canonical examples of realist fiction, with their aspiration to represent the breadth of the social world, are often the first to come to mind. Critics interested in bridging the gap between literature and economics, for instance, tend to hold up nineteenth-century novels as key examples of the relevant insight fiction might offer (Fessenbecker and Yazell, 2021 ). This preference for major classics was also confirmed by the participants in our survey, who cited such canonical novelists as George Orwell and Leo Tolstoy with high frequency (Table 5 ). The full list of literary recommendations for “understanding society better” includes novels and authors and spans different national literary canons, with authors associated with novels far eclipsing other forms of literature.

The above list of frequently referenced authors comes with few surprises. Anglophone—and especially US—literature and writers dominate, which reflects of the high number of US and UK universities on our list of top departments in the field of social science. All authors except Homer, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Austen, Eliot, and Twain belong to the twentieth century. The most contemporary authors are women—Adichie and Atwood the only living authors within the top twenty—in contrast to the heavily-canonized, uniformly male authors in the top five positions. These more recent authors to different degrees push back against the conventions of the realist novel. Atwood’s speculative fiction and the fantasy and utopian fiction of LeGuin thus demonstrate the range of novelistic genres cited in the survey responses.

The list also suggests something of the formative power of the standardized literature curriculum. Books typically assigned in US high schools are heavily represented on the list of recommended texts below, which includes The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird (Table 6 ). The uncontested most recommended read for social scientists is the British novelist and essayist George Orwell. The specific recommendations include his most best-selling books, 1984 and Animal Farm, which together form the two most recommended titles according to the survey respondents.

Conclusion: the uses of trivia

To briefly summarize, we set out to study the way social scientists use literature in two broad ways. First, we compiled a dataset comprising a century’s worth of scholarship in the social sciences. Second, we conducted a survey of a large number of contemporary working social scientists. A qualitative review of the dataset revealed a number of different ways social scientists have used literature; these uses were categorizable into six broad categories, several of which contained discernible sub-categories. The survey reinforced parts of this analysis while diverging in intriguing ways. Almost all the surveyed social scientists agreed on the cognitive value of literature, and almost half (46%) reported that literary works had played important roles in their own intellectual biographies. Yet some common uses of literature in the dataset received virtually no mention in the self-reports and the survey revealed suggestive evidence of the impact of institutional structures on whether and how scholars use literature. Ultimately the analysis points towards the value of further research. Both the list of uses compiled from the dataset and the list of works compiled from the survey are necessarily limited in scope and would benefit from a more comprehensive consideration of social scientists and their research.

But by way of conclusion, it is worth responding to the worry that much of the data collected here is somewhat less than consequential—the collection of an offhand reference here, a novel read in grad school there—and to that extent cannot answer our opening question about the nature of interdisciplinarity. Or, perhaps more soberly, it does answer the question, but simply in the negative. There is in fact not much of a meaningful use for literature in the conduct of the social sciences, and one of the pieces of evidence for the argument is the limited use such scholars have made of it thus far. Such an objection is wrong in two ways, one rather boring and one relatively more interesting. The boring objection is simply the observation that the history of a discipline does not predict its future: it would not be at all surprising to see a discipline change as a new archive of material or a new method of analysis became available to it. Indeed, this is often precisely what leads disciplines forward. The more interesting objection is the implicit premise that interdisciplinary scholarship must make its interdisciplinarity overt and extensive, and that a new interdisciplinary connection must be innovative.

We reject both halves of this second premise. The kind of interdisciplinarity we have traced here is light and casual, using a quotation here or there, and there is little that is new about it: it has been with the social sciences for much of their history. However, interdisciplinarity need not be utterly novel to be worth explicating, theorizing, and defending. Against the model of interdisciplinary development that considers the key question to be the difficulty and complexity of bringing two disciplines together, we want to highlight how easy it really is. If it were to become ordinary practice to read a novel and a piece of literary criticism that addressed whatever issue a given social scientist happened to be working on, this would for many social scientists simply normalize and bring to awareness the way they already work. Moreover, rather than shaming social scientists for not using literature more, we submit a better way to evoke greater respect for and greater use of literature and criticism is to highlight the ways in which they already do. Carrots, as they say, rather than sticks.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Rita Felski, Anne-Marie Mai, and Pieter Vanhuysse for their helpful feedback during the design of the survey. Thanks are also due to JSTOR for making available their digital archive and to the nearly 1000 colleagues who responded to the survey and, in some cases, provided additional comments by email. Research in this article received funding by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF127) and the Danish Institute for Advanced Study (internal funds).

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Klaus Petersen & Paul Marx

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Yazell, B., Petersen, K., Marx, P. et al. The role of literary fiction in facilitating social science research. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8 , 261 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00939-y

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English Literature Research Paper Topics

This guide, centered on English literature research paper topics , serves as a comprehensive resource for students seeking to delve deep into the diverse epochs, authors, and themes that have shaped English literary tradition. Navigating the intricate tapestry of English literature offers scholars a multitude of avenues for exploration. From the mystique of medieval tales to the introspective narratives of modernism, this guide not only provides a plethora of English literature research paper topics but also offers insights on choosing the ideal topic, structuring the research paper, and harnessing the unmatched writing services of iResearchNet. Dive in to unravel the rich heritage of English literature and discover the myriad opportunities it presents for academic exploration.

100 English Literature Research Paper Topics

Diving into English literature is like embarking on a journey through time and culture. From ancient ballads to modernist narratives, it offers a vast panorama of themes, styles, and societal reflections. Below is a comprehensive list of English literature research paper topics spanning across different eras and genres:

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Medieval Literature

The significance of chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight .
The Christian and Pagan elements in Beowulf .
Courtly love in The Knight’s Tale from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales .
Dream visions in Pearl and Piers Plowman .
The role of fate and providence in The Consolation of Philosophy .
The art of storytelling in The Decameron vs. The Canterbury Tales .
The Seven Deadly Sins in Everyman .
The evolution of the English language: Old English vs. Middle English.
Religious allegory in The Second Shepherd’s Play .
Women and femininity in the Lais of Marie de France .

Renaissance and Elizabethan Age

Shakespeare’s portrayal of power in Macbeth .
Love and beauty in Sonnet 18 .
The idea of the “New World” in The Tempest .
The virtues in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene .
Magic and science in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.
The pastoral settings of As You Like It .
The politics of gender in Twelfth Night .
Revenge and madness in Hamlet .
John Donne’s metaphysical poetry and its innovation.
The darker side of the Renaissance: The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster.

The Restoration and the 18th Century

The satirical world of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels .
Class struggles in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders .
Alexander Pope’s critique of society in The Rape of the Lock .
Aphra Behn and the emergence of the woman writer.
The wit and wisdom of Samuel Johnson’s essays.
The rise of the novel: Richardson vs. Fielding.
Sentimentality and society in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy .
Politics and plays: John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera .
Women, education, and literature: Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas.
The mock-heroic in English literature.

Romantic Period

Nature and transcendence in Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey .
The Byronic hero in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage .
Shelley’s Ozymandias and the ephemeral nature of power.
The Gothic romance of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights .
George Gordon Lord Byron and the Romantic antihero.
The visionary world of William Blake’s poems.
The exotic and the familiar in Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Keats’s exploration of beauty and mortality.
The industrial revolution’s reflection in literature.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the dangers of ambition.

Victorian Era

Charles Dickens and his critique of Victorian society.
The challenges of morality in Thomas Hardy’s novels.
The bildungsroman in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre .
The plight of women in George Eliot’s Middlemarch .
Oscar Wilde’s wit and irony in The Importance of Being Earnest .
The debate on science and religion in In Memoriam A.H.H by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
The mystery and suspense of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.
The “Woman Question” in Victorian literature.
The realism of Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire.
Gothic elements in Dracula by Bram Stoker.
The fragmented narrative of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse .
T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and the disillusionment of the post-war era.
The struggles of the working class in D.H. Lawrence’s novels.
The impact of World War I on English poetry.
James Joyce’s revolutionary narrative techniques in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man .
E.M. Forster’s exploration of social and racial themes.
The critique of colonialism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness .
W.B. Yeats and the Irish literary revival.
The emergence of the stream-of-consciousness technique.
The Jazz Age and decadence in the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The Gothic Tradition

Origins of Gothic fiction: Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto .
The supernatural and macabre in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Ann Radcliffe’s influence on the Gothic novel.
The role of the Byronic hero in The Vampyre by John Polidori.
Duality of human nature in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde .
The haunting atmospheres in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
Gender and sexuality in Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.
Edgar Allan Poe’s influence on English Gothic literature.
Dracula by Bram Stoker: Themes of sexuality and fear of the unknown.
The Gothic novel as a reflection of societal fears and anxieties.

The Angry Young Men Era

Social criticism in John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger .
Exploring masculinity in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe.
The disillusionment of post-war Britain in The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner .
The class struggle in Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim .
Existential themes in John Wain’s Hurry on Down .
Feminine perspectives in the era: Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey .
The critique of academia in The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury.
The Angry Young Men and their influence on modern theater.
The transformation of British literature in the 1950s and 1960s.
The lasting legacy of the Angry Young Men movement in contemporary literature.

Postmodern British Literature

Metafiction in Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot .
The playfulness of language in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses .
Intertextuality in Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit .
The fragmented narrative in Graham Swift’s Waterland .
Reality and fiction in Ian McEwan’s Atonement .
Gender and postcolonial themes in Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve .
The exploration of identity in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth .
The deconstruction of traditional narrative in Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.
Postmodern gothic in The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
Magical realism in The Porcelain Doll by Julian Barnes.

Contemporary English Literature

The multicultural London in Brick Lane by Monica Ali.
Exploring family dynamics in On Beauty by Zadie Smith.
The concept of time in Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam .
The role of history in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall .
The exploration of love and loss in Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending .
Postcolonial Britain in Andrea Levy’s Small Island .
The challenges of modern life in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity .
The evolution of the English detective novel: Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories .
The legacy of the British Empire in The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.
The digital age and its influence on literature: The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon.

English literature boasts a rich and varied tapestry of themes, periods, and genres. This comprehensive list is a testament to the dynamism and depth of the field, offering a myriad of research avenues for students. As they venture into each topic, they can appreciate the nuances and complexities that have shaped the literary tradition, making it an invaluable component of global culture and heritage.

English Literature and the Range of Topics It Offers

English literature, encompassing the vast historical, cultural, and artistic legacy of writings in the English language, boasts a rich tapestry of narratives, characters, and stylistic innovations. From the earliest Old English epic poems to the reflective and multifaceted postmodern novels, English literature offers an expansive array of topics for analysis, discussion, and research. The depth and breadth of this literary tradition are mirrored by the diverse range of English literature research paper topics it can inspire.

The Medieval Foundation

Diving into the early origins of English literature, we encounter works like Beowulf , an Old English epic poem of heroism, fate, and the struggle against malevolent forces. Medieval English literature, characterized by religious texts, chivalric romances, and philosophical treatises, sets the stage for the evolution of narrative styles and thematic explorations. The rich allegorical narratives, like Piers Plowman or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , present intricate societal and spiritual commentaries that still resonate with readers today. These works invite inquiries into the socio-religious dynamics of medieval England, the evolution of the English language, and the literary techniques employed.

Renaissance and Enlightenment: A Burst of Creativity

The Renaissance and Elizabethan Age saw the emergence of revered playwrights like William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, whose dramas, whether tragedies, comedies, or histories, plumbed the depths of human emotion, politics, and existence. The genius of Shakespeare’s Hamlet or Othello , juxtaposed against Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus , provides a fertile ground for investigating themes of ambition, betrayal, love, and existential angst. Moreover, with poets like Edmund Spenser and his epic The Faerie Queene , English literature expanded its horizons, both thematically and stylistically.

The subsequent Restoration and the 18th century ushered in a period of social and literary change. With authors like Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, satire became a powerful tool to critique society and politics. Furthermore, the emergence of the novel, as exemplified by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela , offered researchers a chance to explore the evolving societal values, gender norms, and narrative techniques.

Romanticism, Victorian Era to Modernism: A Spectrum of Emotion and Thought

The Romantic period, marked by poets like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and John Keats, celebrated nature, emotion, and individualism. In contrast, the Victorian era, with novelists like Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and the Brontë sisters, addressed societal change, morality, and industrialization. Both periods are a goldmine for English literature research paper topics around the individual vs. society, the role of nature, and the exploration of the self.

Modernism in English literature, with heavyweights like Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and T.S. Eliot, revolutionized narrative structure and thematic depth. Works from this era, such as To the Lighthouse or The Waste Land , demand analysis on fragmented narrative, stream of consciousness, and the introspective exploration of the human psyche.

Contemporary Reflections

Contemporary English literature, shaped by postcolonial, feminist, and postmodern influences, gives voice to a plethora of perspectives. Authors like Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, and Julian Barnes tackle issues of identity, multiculturalism, history, and reality versus fiction. Such works present a plethora of avenues for research, from analyzing the postcolonial identity in Rushdie’s narratives to the intricate tapestries of familial and societal dynamics in Smith’s novels.

Concluding Thoughts

In essence, English literature is an evolving entity, reflecting and shaping societal, cultural, and individual values and challenges over the centuries. For students and researchers, the wealth of English literature research paper topics it offers ranges from historical and linguistic analyses to deep dives into thematic cores and stylistic innovations. Whether one wishes to explore the chivalric codes of medieval romances, the biting satires of the 18th century, the emotional landscapes of Romanticism, or the fragmented realities of postmodern narratives, English literature provides an inexhaustible reservoir of research opportunities.

How to Choose an English Literature Topic

Choosing a research paper topic, especially within the expansive field of English literature, can be a challenging endeavor. The centuries-spanning literature offers a treasure trove of stories, themes, characters, and socio-political contexts that beckon exhaustive exploration. As such, students often find themselves at a crossroads, wondering where to begin and how to narrow down their choices to find that one compelling topic. Here’s a detailed guide to streamline this process:

Align with Your Interests: Dive into periods, genres, or authors that genuinely intrigue you. If Victorian novels captivate your imagination or if Shakespearean dramas resonate with you, use that as your starting point. Genuine interest ensures sustained motivation throughout your research journey.
Evaluate Academic Relevance: While personal interest is vital, ensure your chosen topic aligns with academic goals and curriculum requirements. Some English literature research paper topics, while intriguing, might not offer substantial academic value for a particular course or level of study.
Seek Familiar Ground (But Not Too Familiar): Leverage your previous readings and coursework. Familiarity offers a foundation, but challenge yourself to explore uncharted territories within that domain. If you enjoyed Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice , maybe delve into its feminist interpretations or comparative studies with other contemporaneous works.
Embrace Complexity: Opt for English literature research paper topics that lend themselves to multifaceted exploration. Simple topics might not provide enough depth for comprehensive research papers. Instead of a general overview of Romantic poetry, explore the portrayal of nature in Wordsworth’s works versus Shelley’s.
Historical and Cultural Context: Literature isn’t created in a vacuum. Understand the historical and societal backdrop of a literary work. This context can offer a fresh perspective and can be an excellent lens for your research.
Contemporary Relevance: How does a particular work or literary period converse with today’s world? Exploring the modern implications or relevance of classic works can be both enlightening and academically rewarding.
Diverse Interpretations: Embrace English literature research paper topics open to various interpretations. Works like George Orwell’s 1984 or Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot can be analyzed from political, psychological, existential, or linguistic viewpoints.
Consult with Peers and Professors: Engage in discussions with classmates and seek advice from professors. Their feedback can provide new perspectives or refine your existing topic ideas.
Read Critiques and Literary Journals: Academic journals, critiques, and literary analyses offer insights into popular research areas and can help you identify gaps or lesser-explored aspects of a work or period.
Flexibility is Key: As you delve deeper into your research, be open to tweaking or even changing your topic. New findings or challenges might necessitate slight shifts in your research focus.

Choosing the right research topic in English literature requires a blend of personal passion, academic relevance, and the potential for in-depth exploration. By aligning your interests with academic goals, and being open to exploration and adaptation, you pave the way for a fulfilling and academically enriching research experience. Remember, the journey of researching and understanding literature can be as enlightening as the end result. Embrace the process, and let the vast ocean of English literature inspire and challenge you.

How to Write an English Literature Research Paper

Penning an English literature research paper is a task that demands meticulous planning, a deep understanding of the subject, and the ability to weave thoughts coherently. English literature, with its vast and rich tapestry, offers endless avenues for exploration, making it both an exciting and daunting endeavor. Below are step-by-step guidelines to craft a compelling research paper in this domain:

Understanding the Assignment: Before diving into the research phase, ensure you fully understand the assignment’s requirements. Is there a specific format? Are certain sources mandatory? What’s the word count? This foundational clarity sets the stage for efficient research and writing.
Preliminary Research: Start with a broad exploration of your topic. Read general articles, introductory chapters, or review papers. This will give you a general overview and can help narrow down your focus.
Thesis Statement Formulation: Your thesis is the backbone of your research paper. It should be clear, precise, and arguable. For instance, instead of writing “Shakespeare’s plays are influential,” you might specify, “ Macbeth illustrates the dire consequences of unchecked ambition.”
Diving Deeper – Detailed Research: With your thesis in hand, dive deeper into primary (original texts) and secondary sources (critiques, essays). Libraries, academic databases, and literary journals are treasure troves of valuable information.
Organize Your Findings: Use digital tools, index cards, or notebooks to categorize and annotate your findings. Grouping similar ideas together will make the writing process smoother.
Drafting an Outline: An organized structure is essential for clarity. Create an outline with clear headings and subheadings, ensuring a logical flow of ideas. This will serve as a roadmap as you write.
Introduction Crafting: Your introduction should be engaging, offering a glimpse of your thesis and the significance of your study. Remember, first impressions count!
Literary Analysis: Delve into the text’s intricacies – symbols, themes, character development, stylistic devices, and historical context.
Critiques and Counter-arguments: Discuss various interpretations of the text, and don’t shy away from addressing dissenting views. This lends credibility and depth to your paper.
Comparative Analysis (if applicable): Compare the chosen work with others, drawing parallels or highlighting contrasts.
Maintaining Coherence and Transition: Each paragraph should have a clear main idea and transition smoothly to the next, maintaining the paper’s flow and ensuring the reader’s engagement.
Conclusion Crafting: Reiterate your thesis and summarize your main findings. Discuss the broader implications of your study, potentially suggesting areas for further exploration.
Citing Your Sources: Always attribute ideas and quotations to their original authors. Depending on the assigned format (MLA, APA, etc.), ensure that in-text citations and the bibliography are correctly formatted.
Revision and Proofreading: Once your draft is complete, take a break before revisiting it. Read it aloud to catch awkward phrasings. Check for grammatical errors, consistency in argumentation, and clarity in presenting ideas. Consider seeking peer reviews or utilizing editing tools.
Seek Feedback: Before final submission, consider sharing your paper with a mentor, professor, or knowledgeable peer. Their insights can be invaluable in refining your research paper.

Writing an English literature research paper is as much an art as it is a science. While meticulous research and structured writing are crucial, allowing your passion for literature to shine through will elevate your paper. Remember, literature is about exploring the human experience, and as you dissect these masterpieces, you’re not just analyzing texts but delving into profound insights about life, society, and humanity. Embrace the journey, and let every step, from research to writing, be a process of discovery.

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English Literature: Resources for Graduate Research

Articles on Your Topic
Books on Literary History, Theory, Criticism & More
Novels, Poems & Other Primary Texts

What is a literature review?

How to conduct a literature review, books at tufts & beyond.

Historic Newspapers & More
Reviews, Essays & More
English & the Digital Humanities
How to Find Cited Material
Citing Your Sources This link opens in a new window
Getting Items that Tufts Doesn't Own
Copyright & Publication This link opens in a new window

"A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge on and/or methodological approaches to a particular topic. They are secondary sources and discuss published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. Its ultimate goal is to bring the reader up to date with current literature on a topic and forms the basis for another goal, such as future research that may be needed in the area.

A literature review usually precedes a research proposal and may be just a simple summary of sources. Usually, however, it has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis.

A summary is a recap of important information about the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. Depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant of them.

Keep in mind that the main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper will contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you contribute. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions."

The following resource include a number of interesting tips on conducting literature reviews:

The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It Valuable guidelines from the University of Toronto.
Literature Reviews From UNC Chapel Hill, this site explains what literature reviews are and offer insights into the form and construction of literature reviews in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
How to Write a Literature Review A comprehensive guide from UC Santa Cruz Libraries.
Software Tools for a Literature Review A tutorial that explains how mind maps, pdf readers, and citation managers can be used for a literature review (see first part of the tutorial).
Review of Literature A useful overview of literature reviews from UW-Madison.
The Literature Review Ths site was developed by staff at Central Queensland University to help postgraduate students conceptualize, research and write a literature review.

This is a sample of books at Tufts and beyond that include helpful tips for conducting literature reviews and writing dissertations and theses.

<< Previous: Novels, Poems & Other Primary Texts
Next: Historic Newspapers & More >>
Last Updated: Apr 11, 2023 2:17 PM
URL: https://researchguides.library.tufts.edu/EnglishGraduateResources

English and American Literature

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Histories
Finding Books
Historical Periodicals
Digital Collections (NYU subscription)
Digital Collections and Digital Humanities projects (open access)
Literary Criticism
Biographies
Publishing and Bibliographies
Book Reviews
Citing Sources
MLA Style and Citation Management Tools
Special Collections and Archives
Faculty / PhD resources
English 101 resources

Using BobCat to Find Literature Journals

One of the best methods of staying current with your field is by browsing the journal literature. Literature journals help you keep up with the latest scholarship and provide potential venues for publishing your own research. The numerous online databases available to you through the library allow you to search through the contents of these journals (and many others), but browsing through an individual journal will allow you the opportunity for more specific topic research.

You can use the advanced search options in BobCat , the NYU Libraries' catalog, to limit the material type to "Journal" while searching for a subject or keyword of your choice. Here are some sample subject searches, limited to journals:

American literature
Comparative literature
English literature -- History and criticism
Language and literature

Try adding in additional terms to narrow your search down, or use the "Tweak my results" options on the left side of the page if you're getting too many results.

If this method doesn't work for you, you may want to look at a more specialized list of journals (see "Using the MLA Directory of Periodicals" below).

Using the MLA Directory of Periodicals to Find Literature Journals

If you want to look at a list of journals for any topic within literary studies, try the MLA Directory of Periodicals (DOP). Each entry in the DOP provides information about the journal's scope, subject matter, publication schedule, editors, submission guidelines, peer review status, and more. You can access the DoP from within the MLA International Bibliography database, or directly through its own link (below and in the library's Articles & Databases portal).

The video below, from the Modern Language Association, explains the basics of using the DoP.

MLA Directory of Periodicals This link opens in a new window The MLA Directory of Periodicals provides detailed information on journals and book series that cover literature, literary theory, dramatic arts, folklore, language, linguistics, pedagogy, rhetoric and composition, and the history of printing and publishing. Articles published in works listed in the directory are indexed in the MLA International Bibliography. The directory is a valuable resource for scholars seeking outlets to publish their work

What Is the MLA Directory of Periodicals? (on EBSCO) from Modern Language Association on Vimeo .

Closed captioning is available through the Vimeo platform. No transcript is available.

This video is one of many MLA International Bibliography tutorials available on the MLA's own website.

A Sampling of Literature Journals

Here is a small sampling of the literature journals available to you through the library:

Book History Book History is devoted to every aspect of the history of the book, broadly defined as the history of the creation, dissemination, and reception of script and print. It publishes research on the social, economic, and cultural history of author- ship, editing, printing, the book arts, publishing, the book trade, periodicals, newspapers, ephemera, copyright, censorship, literary agents, libraries, literary criticism, canon formation, literacy, literary education, reading habits, and reader response.
Contemporary Literature Contemporary Literature covers the whole range of critical practices, offering new perspectives in contemporary literary studies. CL features in-depth interviews with significant writers, broad-ranging articles written by leaders in the field, and book reviews of important critical studies.
Critical Inquiry In CI new ideas and reconsideration of those traditional in criticism and culture are granted a voice. The wide interdisciplinary focus creates surprising juxtapositions and linkages of concepts, offering new grounds for theoretical debate. In CI, authors entertain and challenge while illuminating such issues as improvisations, the life of things, Flaubert, and early modern women's writing. CI comes full circle with the electrically charged debates between contributors and their critics.
ELH Since 1934, ELH has published superior studies that interpret the conditions affecting major works in English and American literature.
Journal of Victorian Culture Journal of Victorian Culture is essential reading for scholars of the Victorian period. It provides an international forum for discussion and debate on all aspects of Victorian history and culture in a diverse range of formats, including articles, perspectives, roundtables and a section of substantial reviews.
New Literary History New Literary History focuses on questions of theory, method, interpretation, and literary history. Rather than espousing a single ideology or intellectual framework, it canvasses a wide range of scholarly concerns.
Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA) PMLA is the journal of the Modern Language Association of America. Since 1884, PMLA has published members' essays judged to be of interest to scholars and teachers of language and literature.
SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 SEL focuses on four fields of British literature in rotating, quarterly issues: English Renaissance, Tudor and Stuart Drama, Restoration and Eighteenth Century, and Nineteenth Century. The editors select learned, readable papers that contribute significantly to the understanding of British literature from 1500 to 1900.

Need to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed? Use Ulrichs

Ulrichsweb This link opens in a new window Ulrichsweb is an authoritative source of detailed information on periodicals of all types -- academic and scholarly journals, Open Access publications, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more from around the world.
<< Previous: Finding Articles via databases
Next: Historical Periodicals >>
Last Updated: Mar 25, 2024 2:09 PM
URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/english-and-american-literature

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Dalhousie Libraries - Research Guides Home

Dalhousie University Libraries

English Literature

Research step-by-step
Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and more
Find articles
Primary Sources: Digitized books, manuscripts, journals, & newspapers
Recommended Websites
Book reviews
MLA citation
Citation management

On this page...

Step 1: choose a topic, step 2: consult reference sources, step 3: grab some books, step 4: search for articles, step 5: collect, read, evaluate, and write what you have learned, step 6: cite your sources.

Borrowing books from other universities (Document Delivery)
Exercises and help material
Arthurian Literature series
ENGL 3301: Graphic Novels This link opens in a new window
CRWR 4010: Advanced Creative Writing - Poetry I

This page walks you through the basic steps of research. Keep in mind that the research process is actually quite messy, and you might find yourself jumping back and forth between the steps listed here. These steps are meant to orient you to the research process, but you do not necessarily have to follow this exact order:

Choose a topic
Consult reference sources
Grab some books
Search for articles
Collect, read, evaluate, and write what you have learned
Cite your sources

When choosing a topic, keep the following points in mind:

Choose a topic that ACTUALLY interests you.
Your topic is not set in stone. Once you start doing some initial research on your topic, you will probably decide to tweak it a bit.
Pick a topic that is manageable. If your topic is too broad, it will be hard to condense it all into one university paper. But if your topic is too narrow, you may have a hard time finding enough scholarly research for your paper.
Handout: Choosing a topic Check out this helpful handout on choosing a research topic!

Or, watch this incredibly useful video from North Carolina State University Library on choosing a topic:

When you first get started on a research project, you might not have very much prior knowledge of your topic. In that case, it's a great idea to start with some background information. The most heavily-used reference source in the world is Wikipedia, but as a student you also have access to many other excellent scholarly reference sources.

Jump to the "Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and more" page of this guide.

Time to get down to it! Books will help you get an even better handle on your topic. Books provide more in-depth information than reference sources, but are often much better for background information than journal articles. Keep the following in mind:

Start by registering your Dal card as your library card. Fill out your registration form and bring it to the service desk at the Killam Library, or register online using our online form (this will take about 24 hours to process).
Use the Novanet library catalogue to search for books on your topic.
You can access ebooks immediately online; if you find a print book that interests you, write down the call number and visit the stacks!
Check out this quick video: How to read a call number in 90 seconds
Remember that in most cases you won't need to read the whole book!
You may borrow print books for 3 weeks, and renew them twice. To renew books online, start here . Click "Guest," at the top right of the screen, and then "My library card." Log in with your barcode and password. You should see an overview of the books you have checked out, and an option to renew. You can also check out this quick video tutorial on renewing books .

Jump to the "Find books" page of this guide.

Scholarly journals are specialized journals that publish new research on specialized topics. They are written FOR academics, researchers, and students to keep them aware of new developments in the field. They are written, for the most part, BY academics and researchers who are actively involved with the field of study. You can find scholarly articles in databases that the library subscribes to. Make sure to search in subject-specific databases (such as a history database), as well as multidisciplinary databases that include a wider scope of material.

Jump to the "Find journal articles" page of this guide.

Handout: Identifying and reading scholarly works New to reading scholarly articles? Check out this helpful handout.

Or, check out this great video from Western Libraries:

Take very careful notes as you read your sources! This will help you trace themes and develop an argument. Check out the following two videos on writing a research paper, and make an appointment at the Dalhousie Writing Centre if you would like assistance with your writing.

Dalhousie Writing Centre: Make an appointment
Video tutorial: Writing a research paper, Part 1
Writing Research Papers Part 2 Draft -- Revise -- Proof read -- References

Very important! When you use somebody else's words or ideas in your academic papers, you must to give credit to the original source. This is one of the reasons why keeping good notes is so important to the research process.

Jump to the MLA Citation page of this guide.

<< Previous: Citation management
Next: Borrowing books from other universities (Document Delivery) >>
Last Updated: Mar 13, 2024 4:47 PM
URL: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/English

Research Papers on English Literature

This section focuses on the literature of English language from any part of the world, not just the England literature. America and Ireland has also produced remarkable literature work in the field of English. English literature has transformed into a global phenomenon. Researchomatic understands the emerging needs of writers to write an innovative research papers. Therefore, our website provides millions of research based papers for your assistance.

Psychoanalysis of Mann’s “Death in Venice”

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Racial Issues From Fences

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American Literature
Antique Literature
Asian Literature
English Literature
Shakespeare Studies

Dr. Obermeier's Sample Paper Files

You are advised to peruse these sample papers previous students have written for my classes. The papers are either pdf files or HTML files, in which I have embedded comments to explain why they are superior efforts. The comments refer to the following sentence, phrase, or word. Clicking on the comment link will bring up the content. You have to close a comment window before proceeding to the next one. Clicking on the header will give you instructions on how to make such a running header for your papers. Because of HTML restrictions, the formatting might appear slightly off. You still need to keep your papers double-spaced with 1/2-inch paragraph indent. Even if there is no specific explanation for a specific paper, the papers generally share the following superior qualities: descriptive and analytical titles; analytical theses; superior analysis of the texts; correct inclusion of quotations and formatting.

For instructions on how to do a running header for your paper in MS Word, click here .

Click on your class in the lineup.

For Engl. 250

Paper 1 "Sheppard" Characterization
This paper has it all: outstanding thought and content, excellent organization, superior sentence structure and diction. This student's command of the language is superb. A few minor problems could have been edited out. The paper received the grade of 96/A.
Paper 1 "Girl" Characterization
This paper is an excellent example of superior analysis coupled with stylistic economy and succinctness that avoid anything superfluous. The introduction and organization deserve high praise. The paper received the grade of 96/A.
This explication of a Shakespeare sonnet is superbly done. The student outstandingly fused the analysis of the poem with an excellent and virtually error-free style. The paper received the grade of 98/A+.
Paper 2 Explication of "Sonnet 42"

Here are the high-scoring essays for our assignment two. Per announcement in class, these uploads are not following the format as faithfully. I just wanted to get you the info without having to worry about getting everything lined up to MLA standards. Note also that I am providing these examples for the sophistication of the explication, the students' knowledge of technical aspects and detail of analysis; the essays, however, may still contain other weaknesses.

"Sonnet 95"-First Example
"Sonnet 95"-Second Example
"Sonnet 96"-First Example
"Sonnet 96"-Second Example
Paper 3 Explication of "The Victim at Aulis"
The student provides a superbly analyzed and written thematic poetry explication. Notice that the paper is organized around the student's thesis, ie., the major players in the myth and the poem, and not just the chronology of the paper. The paper received the grade of 98/A+.
This paper is an excellent example of a thematic poetry explication, demonstrating superb intertextual understanding and control of the primary texts. Note the student's concise and honed style. The paper received the grade of 96/A.
Paper 4 Synthesis of Millay Poems
This paper offers a beautiful synthesis not only of three poems but also two critical approaches: Feminist and Freudian. It is almost flawlessly written and received the grade of 98/A+.
The paper is up, but I am still working on the comments..
This is an exquisite research paper utilizing a postmodern approach to Taming of the Shrew . Notice that the critical approach is incorporated into the paper; therefore, there is no extra Barry page. The paper received 98/A+. Sorry, no comment boxes yet.
This is another outstanding research paper. It shows the incorporation of the research especially well. Notice that the Barry page is appended after the works cited page.The paper received 98/A+. Sorry, no comment boxes yet.
Return to Student Resources Page

For Engl. 304

For Engl. 306

Term Paper: "Color by Knight"
Term Paper: "Four Fair-Unnamed Females"
Term Paper: "Lancelot: As Great as He Is Destructive"
Return to Engl. 306 Page

For Engl. 351

P aper 1a here was written for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales but also works for Love Visions . To save time, I did not create javascript comment boxes but inserted my comments in square brackets into the actual paper. Notice that the paper has all the aspects an outstanding paper should: original thought and analysis, clear organization and thesis, interesting intro, correct sentence structure, superior diction, and mostly correct MLA format. The paper received a score of 98/A+. Clicking on the header will give you instructions on how to make such a running header for your papers. Because of HTML restrictions, the formatting might appear slightly off. You still need to keep your papers double-spaced with 1/2-inch paragraph and 1-inch block quotation indents. Papers 2a and 2b were written for the shorter Love Visions assignment, 2c for the longer paper; these papers have no comments in them and are in pdf.

Paper 1a "Sadness and Faith"
Paper 2a "'The Poynt of Remembraunce': Chaucer’s Presentation of Women as Literary Characters"
Paper 2b "A Dream as a Guide for the Dreamer in Parliament of Fowls by Geoffrey Chaucer"
Paper 2c "Lies, Deception, and Criseyde's Heart"

For Engl 449/559

For Engl 450/550

For Engl 451/551

Paper 2 "Dame Ragnell" Part 1
Paper 2 "Dame Ragnell" Part 2
Paper 2 "Dame Ragnell" Annotated Bib

For Engl 581

For Engl 650

UNC Libraries
Subject Research
Research Methods for English and Comparative Literature
Archival Collections at UNC

Research Methods for English and Comparative Literature: Archival Collections at UNC

Getting Started with Library Research
Library Research Skills / Concepts
Reference Resources
Articles and Books
Digital Collections (Primary Sources)

Records, Papers, Archives

Other archival resources.

Finding Book Reviews
Finding Short Stories & Short Story Criticism: Finding Published Short Stories
Finding Short Stories & Short Story Criticism: Background Resources
Finding Short Stories & Short Story Criticism: Short Story Criticism
Using Zotero
Citation Help

The Libraries offer many primary source documents, in a variety of formats.

Many digitized collections can be found within this guide and on the History databases page.

You can also search the online catalog for primary sources, using words such as: personal narratives, autobiographies, diaries, letters, records, sources, interviews, archives, or archival sources :

Jimmy Carter (as an Author Search)
baseball "personal narratives"
Communist Party United States interviews
"East India Company" record s
Finding Primary Source Materials by Amy Fader Last Updated Mar 29, 2024 547 views this year

Visit our Wilson Special Collections Library . Additionally, many of these materials have been digitized. You will also find extensive digitized materials available on the Finding Aids for individual collections.

The guide for Using Records about Slavery in the Southern Historical Collection is a fantastic resource for the topic, but it also an excellent introductory guide for using Finding Aids and for other research strategies relating to our special collections.

Take some time to familiarize yourself with the various special collections . Keep in mind that our collection is extensive, going far beyond NC related material, and could include something relevant to your research no matter what your topic may be. Also, explore the special collections at Duke's Rubenstein Library using the same login you made when setting up an account for accessing material from Wilson Special Collections.

Using Records about Slavery in the Southern Historical Collection by Chaitra Powell Last Updated May 6, 2022 174 views this year

The databases below help identify primary source repositories around the world. Many archival institutions put finding aids or guides to their collections on the web. They also may have some of their collections digitized and available online.

ArchiveGrid Serves as a single point of entry that provides online access to descriptions of archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives worldwide. Allows discovery of information about primary source materials - both personal papers and corporate records. more... less... Access: No restrictions.
Center for Research Libraries Searches collaborative purchases for US academic libraries including foreign dissertations, newspapers, large microfilm sets, and more available for use through Interlibrary Loan
National Archives Catalog The online catalog of the National Archives and Records Administration's nationwide holdings, including the Washington DC area, Regional Archives, and Presidential Libraries. It can also be used to search a subset of NARA documents that are available online.
DigitalNC The online home for materials presented by the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center. It includes yearbooks from NC colleges and universities, NC newspapers, NC city directories, photos from NC and other historical materials about North Carolina. more... less... Access: No restrictions.

Archival Resources at UNC

Search the Special Collections

Prepare for Your Visit

Microforms in Davis Library

The Microforms Collection is located on the Lower Level of Davis Library and includes over one million items on microfilm, microfiche, microcard, and microprint. Readers, printers, and scanners are available. A staff member or student assistant is available to assist patrons in locating materials and in using the equipment during microforms service hours . To ensure availability, please book an appointment to use the microforms scanner in advance.

Book an Appointment

A staff member will meet you at the Davis Library 1st floor service desk, and accompany you to the lower level.

<< Previous: Digital Collections (Primary Sources)
Next: Finding Book Reviews >>
Last Updated: Mar 29, 2024 9:51 AM
URL: https://guides.lib.unc.edu/ECL

Search & Find

E-Research by Discipline
More Search & Find

Places & Spaces

Places to Study
Book a Study Room
Printers, Scanners, & Computers
More Places & Spaces
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Request a Title for Purchase
Schedule Instruction Session
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Support & Guides

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How to write a literature review in research paper
️ Literary research paper. 4 Ways to Write a Literary Analysis. 2019-02-23
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Example of a Literature Review for a Research Paper by
50 Smart Literature Review Templates (APA) ᐅ TemplateLab
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Last year question paper English literature BA 5th sem 2024 #motivation #study_platform #short
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Ana Teresa Marques dos Santos. Cláudia Pazos-Alonso. Nov 2023. Explore the latest full-text research PDFs, articles, conference papers, preprints and more on ENGLISH LITERATURE. Find methods ...
Language and Literature: Sage Journals
Language and Literature is an invaluable international peer-reviewed journal that covers the latest research in stylistics, defined as the study of style in literary and non-literary language. We publish theoretical, empirical and experimental research that aims to make a contribution to our understanding of style and its effects on readers.
How to write a Research Paper
A research paper represents the ideas of the person who writes it. In simple words, a research paper presents an original idea and substantiates it with logical arguments. Writing a research paper in the domain of English literature is very different compared to writing research articles in other domains. Literature inclines towards abstract ...
English: Journal of the English Association
English is delighted to announce its 2022 Postgraduate Essay Prize. It is open to all students currently registered on a PhD and writing on a topic in English Literature. Winners get a cash prize and publication in the journal, while all entries are considered for publication and receive specialist peer review. Explore the past winning essays.
Top Scopus Indexed Journals in English Literature
European Journal of English Studies- Taylor & Francis Online. 8. Journal of English for Academic Purposes - Elsevier B.V. 9. Journal of English Linguistics- SAGE Journals. 10. Research in the Teaching of English-NCTE. 11. The English Classroom - Regional Institute of English.
The role of literary fiction in facilitating social science research
According to Watts, economists who engage with literature to any degree tend to do so according to four different categories: 1. eloquent description of human behavior; 2. historical evidence ...
English Literature Research Paper Topics
This guide, centered on English literature research paper topics, serves as a comprehensive resource for students seeking to delve deep into the diverse epochs, authors, and themes that have shaped English literary tradition.Navigating the intricate tapestry of English literature offers scholars a multitude of avenues for exploration.
Embracing Multi-disciplinarity and Innovation: Emerging Trends ...
Research in English Literature is no longer confined only to studies based on themes, characters, and rhetoric. ... It will be the endeavor of this paper to analyze how this evolved concept of the "text" and use of research methodologies from other disciplines have helped research in English Literature become multidisciplinary and ...
English Literature: Resources for Graduate Research
Depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant of them. Keep in mind that the main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper will contain a literature review as one of its parts.
Research Guides: English and American Literature: Journals
Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA) PMLA is the journal of the Modern Language Association of America. Since 1884, PMLA has published members' essays judged to be of interest to scholars and teachers of language and literature. SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900.
PDF A Brief Guide to Writing the English Paper
The Challenges of Writing About English Literature Writing begins with the act of reading. While this state-ment is true for most college papers, strong English papers ... • A research paper. In most cases, you will receive guidance from the professor on the scope of the research paper. It is likely that you will be expected to consult
(PDF) The Challenges in the Teaching of English Literature
31 January 2023. Learning English is already a challenging task, and when it co mes. to studying literature in English, the difficulty level increases even. further. This Systematic Literature ...
English Literature Research Papers
English Literature. The Construction of Female Characters in Selected Brothers. This paper focuses on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. The paper discusses, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Cinderella, Snow White and the Sever Dwarfs among other fairy tales from a feminist perspective. Save to Library.
Research step-by-step
Step 5: Collect, read, evaluate, and write what you have learned. Take very careful notes as you read your sources! This will help you trace themes and develop an argument. Check out the following two videos on writing a research paper, and make an appointment at the Dalhousie Writing Centre if you would like assistance with your writing ...
Research Topics in English Literature
Ideas for Writing English Papers. Research topics on English literature initially start off broad and then narrow down and you come up with your thesis. Using any of the research topics listed (gender, comparisons, historical background, politics, and religion) can take you almost anywhere. Choose your general topic based on the literature ...
Free English Literature Research Papers & Research Papers topics
Research Papers on English Literature. This section focuses on the literature of English language from any part of the world, not just the England literature. America and Ireland has also produced remarkable literature work in the field of English. English literature has transformed into a global phenomenon.
Sample Literature Papers
Paper 1a "Sadness and Faith". Paper 2a "'The Poynt of Remembraunce': Chaucer's Presentation of Women as Literary Characters". Paper 2b "A Dream as a Guide for the Dreamer in Parliament of Fowls by Geoffrey Chaucer". Paper 2c "Lies, Deception, and Criseyde's Heart". Return to Student Resources Page.
PDF Recent trends in English literature in India: A case study
IJCRT2110237 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org c66 Recent trends in English literature in India: A case study Priti N. Kaninde G. M. Vedak College of Engineering and Institute of Technology, Tala-Raigad. India. Abstract: Indian English literature also referred to as Indian Writing in
Shodhganga@INFLIBNET: Department of English Literature
The Shodhganga@INFLIBNET Centre provides a platform for research students to deposit their Ph.D. theses and make it available to the entire scholarly community in open access. ... 14 English Literature; 8 English; 3 Kamala Das; 2 Anita Desai; 2 Lawrence Durrell; 2 novels; 2 Shashi Deshpande; 2 W B Yeats; 2 William Faulkner. next > Year ...
Research Methods for English and Comparative Literature: Archival
The Libraries offer many primary source documents, in a variety of formats. Many digitized collections can be found within this guide and on the History databases page.. You can also search the online catalog for primary sources, using words such as: personal narratives, autobiographies, diaries, letters, records, sources, interviews, archives, or archival sources:
IMF Working Papers
We review the literature on the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption and the ongoing regulatory efforts concerning this technology. Economic research encompasses growth, employment, productivity, and income inequality effects, while regulation covers market competition, data privacy, copyright, national security, ethics concerns, and financial stability.

How to write a Research Paper – Step by Step Guide

A Step-by-Step Guide to writing a research paper

Bildungsroman – literary term definition, examples, notes & help you need

List of important literary terms associated with studying drama or play – Literature Guides

What is Drama? What is Drama in Literature? Features, Types & Details Students Must Know

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Literature as argument

Literature as context

Literature as metonym

Literature as decoration

Discussion: what do social scientists say?

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