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ENC 1102: Finding Literary Criticism & More (Dale Mabry): Tips

Selected websites and library resources for researching works of literature.

Using keywords to get started

"Search Terms" are keywords and phrases that describe your topic.

Try a word or phrase for your field or specialty, plus one of the following terms:
  • "war of the worlds" wells
    • Title of the work in "quotation marks" followed by author's last name.
      • Enclosing words that go together in quotation marks helps with phrase searching.
  • "war of the worlds" and wells and imperial*
    • Title of the work plus author's last name and topic keyword
      • The keyword truncated by the asterisk* picks up all forms of the word (imperialist, imperialism).
  • "british imperialism"
    • Topical keywords only.
    • Picks up material about the topic in general, not necessarily connected with a particular author or literary work.
  • wells, h.g.
    • Author's last name followed by a comma, and first name.
    • Lastname, Firstname search picks up material about the author's life and works in general.

When you get results

eBooks, articles, and other online content may require a log-in - refer to the Help tab for more info.

Try your own search in Primo, the library catalog

Find books, articles, videos, & more

Using PRIMO to find literary criticism

Literary criticism articles are scholarly