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MLA Guide to Undergraduate Research in Literature

Second edition.

• Authors: Elizabeth Brookbank, H. Faye Christenberry
• Published: 2023
• ISBN: 9781603296298 (Paperback)

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• Description

What makes a good research topic in a literature class? What does your professor mean by “peer-reviewed” sources? What should you do if you can’t find enough material? This approachable guide walks students through the process of research in literary studies, providing them with tools for responding successfully to course assignments.

Written by two experienced librarians, the guide introduces the resources available through college and university libraries and explains how to access the ones a student needs. It focuses on research in literature, identifying relevant databases and research guides and explaining different types of sources and the role each plays in researching and writing about a literary text. But it also contains helpful information for any student researcher, describing strategies for searching the web to find the most useful material and offering guidance on organizing research and documenting sources with MLA style.

Extensively updated and revised, the second edition emphasizes digital resources that can be accessed remotely, offers critical thinking strategies for evaluating sources, and includes more information on writing about audiovisual as well as written works.

• Digital Pedagogy
• Writing and Research Guides

Introduction (1)

1. Starting the Research Process (5)

Understanding Your Research Paper Assignment (6)

Developing a Topic (11)

Developing a Search Strategy (13)

The Research Process: Five Top Tips for Doing Better Research (19)

2. Searching Your Library Discovery System or Catalog (25)

Is This like Google ? Your Library’s Discovery System (27)

The Library’s Special Language: Library of Congress Subject Headings (32)

Moving beyond the Basics (33)

Using Materials from Other Libraries (39)

Choosing the Right Library Sources for Your Assignment (41)

3. Searching Subject-Specific Databases (43)

How to Select the Right Database (44)

Subject-Specific Databases (47)

Advanced Searching in the MLA International Bibliography (50)

Interdisciplinary Databases (52)

4. Searching the Internet (59)

Finding Scholarship on the Internet (60)

Accessing Scholarship Online (63)

Searching Smarter: Search Engine Advanced Tools (65)

Evaluating Internet Sources (67)

Evaluating Library Sources (71)

5. Finding Reviews (75)

6. Using Contextual Primary Sources (83)

What Is a Primary Source? (83)

Periodicals as Primary Sources (85)

Audiovisual Media as a Primary Source (86)

Using Primary Sources in Literary Research (86)

Finding Primary Sources Using a Library Database or Catalog (89)

Finding Primary Sources Using the Internet (91)

7. Finding Background Information (95)

Library Sources for Biographical and Historical Information (96)

Internet Sources for Biographical and Historical Information (101)

Finding a Definition or the Source of a Quotation (106)

8. Managing Sources and Creating Your Bibliography (111)

Creating In-Text Citations and a Works-Cited List (112)

Organizing Your Research (116)

9. Guides to Research in Literature Written in English (121)

Harner’s Literary Research Guide (122)

Series on Literary Research from Scarecrow Press (123)

Appendix. A Selected Bibliography of Research Sources for Literature and Literary Studies in English (125)

Glossary (143)

Index (149)

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Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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World Literature Research Paper Topics

World literature research paper topics are essential for students and scholars to understand the breadth and depth of the literary world across different cultures and time periods. This area of study encompasses a wide range of topics, from ancient literature to contemporary works, reflecting the interconnectedness of human experiences across the globe. Understanding world literature not only provides insights into the cultural and societal contexts of various regions, but it also reveals the common themes and motifs that unite us as humans. By exploring these topics, researchers contribute to a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the world’s literary heritage.

100 World Literature Research Paper Topics

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English: EGL 1020 Writing About Literature

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Composition II: Writing About Literature (EGL 1020)

EGL 1020 / Research Paper Assignment (Dr. Frank Edwards)

Length : 7-8  pages (including Title Page, Informal Outline, Draft Pages, Works Cited Page)

For this assignment, you will explore how a piece(s) of literature of your choice comments on prevailing social attitudes about a particular topic (marriage, women’s rights, race, etc) or historical event (i.e. American Civil War). In this paper, you will be blending historical/sociological analysis and literary analysis.

Steps to Take:

Select a story, play or poem

• Identify which topic or historical event you would like to research.
• Research the prevailing societal attitudes during the time of the story/play’s setting or composition about this topic. You will have to make some informed and reasonable generalizations based on your research.
• Does the story challenge the prevailing societal attitudes about your topic, does it reaffirm them, or does it do a combination of both?
• Is the text  “taking a stand,” presenting a view that would not have been widely held?
• Which people and activities are presented positively in the story?
• Which people are represented negatively?
• Are characters’ attitudes about this topic used to help readers understand them? Are their attitudes used to symbolize something else?
• Formulate a thesis that asserts that the story challenges prevailing societal views about the topic, confirms them, or does a bit of both.
• Develop your argument through examples from the story/play/poem and from your secondary sources.
• Use point-by-point organizational structure. Do not simply devote the first half of your paper to a discussion of the social/historical and the second half, the literary. You should blend the two elements.

Say you wanted to write about “The Things They Carry” and its treatment of the Vietnam War. You could divide your topic into several subtopics---soldiers, bravery, purpose of war, etc. You would then research what people felt about these aspects of war while it was happening. Then you should look at how the story presents war. Is it challenging people’s perceptions or confirming them?

Where to begin

Start at the library. You want to make sure you use both of the library catalog and the online databases, looking at both journals and books.  The following are a list of online databases, available in the library and through remote access from your home, which you might find helpful.

• Gale Literary Sources
• Bloom's Literature
• American History
• Academic OneFile

Possible Sources for Research Papers:

• The new wife: the evolving role of the American wife/ by Susan Shapiro
• A History of the wife/ Marilyn Yalom
• Public vows: a history of marriage and the nation/ Nancy Cot
• The light of the home an intimate view of the lives of women in Victorian America/Green, Harvey
• Apartheid: a history/Brian Lapping
• Blues people Negro music in white America:Baraka, Imamu  Amir
• Early jazz its roots and musical development Schuller, Gunter
• From jazz to swing: African American jazz musicians and their, music, 1890-1935/ Hennessey, Thomas J.
• The history of jazz/ Ted Gioia
• From Jim Crow to civil rights: the Supreme Court and the struggle for racial equality/Klarman, Michael J.
• Journey from Jim Crow the desegregation of transit/Barnes, Catherine A.
• The Anti-Apartheid Reader: The Struggle Against White Rule in South Africa/David Mermelstein

Fiction Writing Assignment:  Literary Research Paper (Dr. Madachy)

Assignment:

Create a research-based literary analysis that examines one or more short stories we have read this semester.  You may choose to compare/contrast issues (such as themes, characters, or point of view) in two or more texts, or write an extended analysis of a single text.    Plot summary is not analysis, and should be avoided .  You should only discuss plot details to support specific claims you’re making about the literary texts.  You may assume that your readers have read the specific texts you are discussing.

Some possible topics include:

• Discuss the narrative point of view in “ The Yellow Wall-paper ” and “ A&P ,” explaining the significance of narrative perspective each uses (i.e. how the narrative point of view contributes to the reader’s understanding of each story).
• Examine the way in which plot structure is used in “ The Story of an Hour ” and “ A Worn Path .”  How does the plot structure affect the story itself?
• Compare and contrast the use of language in “ A&P ” and “ The Cask of Amontillado .”  How does the language used help the reader come to any larger understanding of those texts?

Whatever topic you discuss, the ultimate goal is to help your readers come to a greater understanding about the overall work you’re analyzing.  Essentially, what’s the significance of the arguments you’re making?

All essays must provide textual evidence from the text in the form of direct quotes, which must be properly cited according to MLA style (refer to your grammar handbooks for more on MLA documentation).  You must also incorporate at least three (3) secondary sources, also properly documented according to MLA style .  There is useful information in Kirzner and Mandel’s Literature textbook in chapter 6, including a sample student research paper on pp. 102-108).

All papers are expected to be grammatically correct and create a professional appearance (i.e. your paper should be free of typos and other careless errors).

Approximately 6 pages, plus a works cited page

Major Literary Research Essay / Presentation (Prof. Robinson)

MLA format, 6-10 pages (at least 5 sources)

Using MLA format, type a 6-10 page (1,800 - 3,000 words) double- spaced Research Essay in 10-12 pt. font that asks and answers a research-related question related to a work of literature (poetry, drama, and/or short fiction) in Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing . 

Thesis-driven arguments should fully develop a research-related topic using appropriate examples, and quotations.  The paper should draw from at least 4 relevant sources beyond the primary text ( 5 sources ).  Support from primary source, history, current events —newspapers, magazines, academic journals , books , literature /non-fiction, government publications, websites.  Use no more than 2 of the same type of source material.  Consider your writing handbook (MLA).  See example (Kirszner 34-39).  Late papers will most likely not be considered unless under extreme circumstances, due to the class’s final session.

Presentations will be on one or more topics, or essays from the finished portfolio.  Include a handout or verbally outline the breadth of the presentation.  Presentations will be 5 min. , covering the students’ chosen topics.  Let me know if any media, i.e., overhead, computer, tape recorder, DVD, or VCR will be necessary.

Objectives:

• To encourage students to give and receive advice concerning writing, and research.
• Familiarity with important issues in current, as well as traditional composition theory.
• Ability to accurately support arguments with appropriate research-related materials.
• Document discipline-related findings according to MLA, APA, Chicago-style format .

Example Research Topic:  Education Example Research Question:  How does education influence identity? Example Research Thesis:  Education influences/ doesn’t influence personal/ideological, religious/spiritual,  social/political, rhetorical, and vocational identities by… your argument here .

Please be aware that this is the assignment for English 1020, however your professor may have altered the requirements. Always refer to your professor for the most up to date information.

• Dr. Frank Edwards
• Dr. Paul Madachy
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CWP: Craft of Prose: Researching the White Paper

• Getting started
• News and Opinion Sites
• Academic Sources
• Grey Literature
• Substantive News Sources
• What to Do When You Are Stuck
• Understanding a citation
• Examples of Quotation
• Examples of Paraphrase
• Chicago Manual of Style: Citing Images
• Researching the Op-Ed
• Researching Prospective Employers
• Resume Resources
• Cover Letter Resources

Research the White Paper

Researching the white paper:.

The process of researching and composing a white paper shares some similarities with the kind of research and writing one does for a high school or college research paper. What’s important for writers of white papers to grasp, however, is how much this genre differs from a research paper.  First, the author of a white paper already recognizes that there is a problem to be solved, a decision to be made, and the job of the author is to provide readers with substantive information to help them make some kind of decision--which may include a decision to do more research because major gaps remain. 

Thus, a white paper author would not “brainstorm” a topic. Instead, the white paper author would get busy figuring out how the problem is defined by those who are experiencing it as a problem. Typically that research begins in popular culture--social media, surveys, interviews, newspapers. Once the author has a handle on how the problem is being defined and experienced, its history and its impact, what people in the trenches believe might be the best or worst ways of addressing it, the author then will turn to academic scholarship as well as “grey” literature (more about that later).  Unlike a school research paper, the author does not set out to argue for or against a particular position, and then devote the majority of effort to finding sources to support the selected position.  Instead, the author sets out in good faith to do as much fact-finding as possible, and thus research is likely to present multiple, conflicting, and overlapping perspectives. When people research out of a genuine desire to understand and solve a problem, they listen to every source that may offer helpful information. They will thus have to do much more analysis, synthesis, and sorting of that information, which will often not fall neatly into a “pro” or “con” camp:  Solution A may, for example, solve one part of the problem but exacerbate another part of the problem. Solution C may sound like what everyone wants, but what if it’s built on a set of data that have been criticized by another reliable source?  And so it goes. 

For example, if you are trying to write a white paper on the opioid crisis, you may focus on the value of  providing free, sterilized needles--which do indeed reduce disease, and also provide an opportunity for the health care provider distributing them to offer addiction treatment to the user. However, the free needles are sometimes discarded on the ground, posing a danger to others; or they may be shared; or they may encourage more drug usage. All of those things can be true at once; a reader will want to know about all of these considerations in order to make an informed decision. That is the challenging job of the white paper author.     
 The research you do for your white paper will require that you identify a specific problem, seek popular culture sources to help define the problem, its history, its significance and impact for people affected by it.  You will then delve into academic and grey literature to learn about the way scholars and others with professional expertise answer these same questions. In this way, you will create creating a layered, complex portrait that provides readers with a substantive exploration useful for deliberating and decision-making. You will also likely need to find or create images, including tables, figures, illustrations or photographs, and you will document all of your sources. 

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You are viewing the first edition of this textbook. A second edition is available – please visit the latest edition for updated information.

This page contains the following rubrics:

Composing a Title Rubric

Creating a Research Question Rubric

Positing a Thesis Statement Rubric

Creating an Annotated Bibliography Rubric

Creating a Literature Review Rubric

Creating an Abstract Rubric

* Note: Titles that reference thesis statements and arguments may be OPTIONAL. Please check with your instructor.

Strategies for Conducting Literary Research Copyright © 2021 by Barry Mauer & John Venecek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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