In the last month or so, I have had an absolute mental and scholarly reawakening as I’ve returned to the arena of scholarly research. Entering a Master’s program has been an incredibly enriching experience, and it has reminded me much about why I enjoy studying literature as a whole – whether some people say it shouldn’t be fun or not! One of the most enjoyable and challenging parts of putting my head back into this business has been the element of scholarly research. This is one of the most important parts of looking into the history of literature itself, and I think it bears a lot of interest and deserves some explanation. I will proceed by offering a simple guide on how a literary scholar can use resources to conduct a study on a literary topic of their choosing.

Knowing What to Research

This can be one of the most crucial parts of the process in and of itself. There is honestly no end to what sort of information can be discovered with some proper key word searching on your topic. For the purpose of this example we will behave as if you are looking for something within the scope of Colonial American literature. Those keywords right there can offer you a wealth of scholarly research, which could take days to sift through, unfortunately.

Rather than boiling down the ample research offered by such a general search, it is good to have an idea of some limiting ideas as well. Say, for instance, you have a particular interest in the Puritan writing of early settlers. By simply throwing the words “Puritan” and “Colonial American Writing” into the search parameters of your study your options will include some more succinct bits of information that you can look at with a critical lens.

Finding Resources

I mentioned typing some keywords into your search parameters for what could be a very interesting project, but just what does that mean? Well, there are a number of helpful research tools that can offer you anything from blog posts to scholarly research papers on your given subject. If you are studying through an institution of higher education one of the first place you can go is the library (either physical or digital) and search for information that way. Often this will lead you to a research database such as EbscoHost, ProjectMuse or something similar. These databases are  notorious at providing information that is either as general or as specific as you need it to be based on the research keywords you put in the search bars. An excellent thing to remember for these or any online database is the “advanced search” option, whcih will often allow you to pinpoint key words within the text, the title, and even limit your search to peer reviewed articles, which brings me to another crucial point.

Credible or Laughable

When conducting this type of research one thing that you always want to be on the lookout for is whether or not the resources you find are credible In this day and age literally anyone with data or internet access (so, virtually anyone with access to electricity in most places) has the ability to post their thoughts online. While that can be an incredibly freeing state of accomplishment, it is also can lead to the spread of misinformation.

If you are using scholarly databases like the ones I have mentioned, you often have the option to choose whether or not the material that shows up in your searches is peer reviewed or not. A peer reviewed article is one that is going to hold a wealth of information that pertains to your topic, and has been published in credible academic publications. Peer reviewed articles are often written by a professional in the field and hold exactly the sort of professional quality research that will help you in your study. In general, for a literary study of this kind, most of the articles found in professional publications in your field will contain scholarly and peer reviewed articles.

What Do I Do After I Find It?

Once you have found enough information to develop, support, or even negate your idea based on your topic of study, it is time to begin working on your paper, article, or project. While, throughout the fields of study we could consider, there are countless ways to include your research in your work, literature offers very simple chances. One of the most commonly used is by quoting the work itself. In a standard study of English work the typical format for research papers is MLA style, which offers a tidy and succinct way to present your research both within the work and after, in a Works Cited page. While presenting your research it is a good format to first begin explaining a bit about the material found in one of your sources, affirming your research with a quote and an in-text citation when necessary. It is always a helpful practice to continue your research even after organizing your ideas in na essay or project.

For Further Study

When looking at the possibility of studying literary history, there are no shortage of options for where to start. For instance, Wendell V. Harris offers an interesting look at the way in which the phrase literary history is used. He says that writing about literary history could be “clearer if critics and theorists explicitly recognized the number of different ways” the phrase itself is used (Harris). Similarly, another scholar, G. Giovannini, studies the relation between literature and the other arts. Giovannini states “Literary study has strongly tended to detail
the historical context” of literature rather than the elements of creation therein (Giovannini). These are but two pieces of study that can be used to further your understanding of literary study and literary history itself. For the full details on how to find these pieces of study, see the Works Cited below.

These are but a few of the ways in which a scholar can look into furthering their knowledge and understanding of the topics they wish to learn about in regards to literature.

Works Cited

Giovannini, G. “Method in the Study of Literature in Its Relation to the Other Fine Arts.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 8, no. 3, 1950, pp. 185–95. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/426697. Accessed 18 June 2023.

Harris, Wendell V. “What Is Literary ‘History’?” College English, vol. 56, no. 4, 1994, pp. 434–51. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/378337. Accessed 18 June 2023.