Before you start your search, it can help to brainstorm keywords for your topic. What will you type in the search bar to find useful sources? If you're having a hard time coming up with keywords, try using important words and phrases from your assignment prompt or from other articles about the text.
Useful keywords can be
Once you've identified some keywords, it helps to be prepared with some alternate terms in case the first keywords you've tried don't get the results you want. Try synonyms, antonyms, and related terms.
For example, someone researching gender roles in Shakespeare's Macbeth might try the following keyword combinations in their searches:
In a research paper for English 220, you will be asked to engage with the arguments published in peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and books in the field of English literature. While some of these kinds of publications are available freely to everyone on the Internet, many academic papers can only be accessed through paid subscriptions to databases. You can access many databases through Hunter/CUNY subscriptions by logging in with your Hunter NetID and password.
A list of all databases that can be accessed through Hunter is posted here.
A full list of databases recommended for research in English Language and Literature can be found here.
Note that you can also find scholarly sources using OneSearch. See the "Choosing Peer-Reviewed Sources" tab in this guide for information about how to identify scholarly sources in your OneSearch results.
Below are instructions for how to search 3 databases (Gale Literature, JSTOR, and Project Muse) to find scholarly sources on literature.
Gale Literature is a database devoted entirely to literature, and it includes both literary criticism and reference sources.
To find literary criticism in this database:
The search page will look like this:
The results page will look like this:
JSTOR is a database of scholarly journals and ebooks in many fields. It is especially useful for the humanities.
To find literary criticism in JSTOR:
The search page will look like this:
Be sure to filter to journals and books in the appropriate field/s of study:
Project Muse is an online collection of full text journals and ebooks published by Johns Hopkins University Press and other university presses.
To find literary criticism in Project Muse:
Your search will look something like this:
The filters by research area will look like this: