Literature Thesis: Make Your Paper Relevant and Personal May 29th, 2012
Literature theses are a master’s candidate’s way of showing what they have contributed to the sum of knowledge in their field. A thesis in literature studies can be a dry or obscure piece of writing for an in-group of academics, or it can be something that highlights and explicates a topic for wider discussion in the field. Obviously, the latter is going to be more exciting to write and read, and more fun to complete. How can you make sure that your literature thesis turns out as a vibrant and compelling invitation to learn more about the subject?
7 Ways to Include Variety in Literature Theses:
Often your thesis advisor has some specific area of research that they want you to pursue in order to further their larger project plans. This is sometimes inconvenient and constraining (and not only in Literature). However, often, you can pick topics and approaches that make the process more humane and less stupefying dull. Even if your advisor is strongly encouraging you to examine an issue that links to or supports their larger and longer-term efforts (and this happens frequently), you have the right and the responsibility to make your literature thesis your own. This is your graduate degree, after all.
Literature theses can address at least these eight ideas:
- an author (e.g., Jane Austen),
- a period (e.g., 18th Century),
- a genre (e.g., the marriage novel, picaresque novel),
- a gender (women’s writing, for example),
- a subject (love and marriage, for example),
- a culture or region’s creative products (British, South American, African, for example),
- a style (magical realism, or satire, for example),
- other category of literature, or some combination of the above.
Six ways to expand your research for theses in literature on one author. Look for:
- An author’s writings about themselves;
- Family writings about the author or their work;
- Different drafts, versions, and editions of the author’s works, as well as different formats (Was their work made into a play? Movie? Translated? Published in parts in a newspaper or other periodical?);
- Letters from or to the author;
- Reviews from the year(s) of publication of their work;
- Similar works published at the same time, for comparison. Works of literature reflect their time period even more than the author, sometimes.
Two Ideas to increase the relevancy of your literature thesis, by connecting your topic to:
- relations between genders/races/minorities/indigenous peoples;
- relations between economic classes.
Literature Search: How to Make It Faster and More Interesting March 24th, 2012
Conducting a literature research is an important part of college studies. The ability to find necessary information as quickly as possible is an indispensable skill of a successful student. Some people have to spend an enormous amount of time on their papers because they don’t know how to do a literature search. So, here are tips that will help you find information faster.
Literature Search: Where to Start
Searching for literature is not as hard as it seems, if a person knows how to use informational resources. This is how you can start your research:
- First, you can go to the library and browse through a library catalogue. There are many subject indexes and they will help you find information on every topic.
- Secondly, there are many online databases such as SAGE, EBSCOhost, JSTOR, ProQuest. They will offer you many up-to-date and relevant articles about the topic of your paper.
- Internet resources such as Google Scholar can also be of great use to students who look for relevant information.
- Finally, you may ask your professor or teaching assistant for advice. They will definitely tell you what kind of sources you should use for your paper.
Literature Search: Understanding the Logic of Search Engines
Nowadays, the Internet has become the most popular means of finding information. Yet, some people don’t know how to use this tool effectively. Prior to beginning any search for literature on the Web, you should understand how this information can be retrieved most easily. There are several things that you should do for this:
- First, you need to identify the main keywords related to your topic. You should also write down synonyms to these keywords.
- Secondly, when you write a search query, make sure that it is no longer that four words, because otherwise the search engine may offer you many irrelevant web pages.
- When you want to find exact matches to your query, put your keywords in quotation marks.
- If you want to sift out irrelevant web pages, use Boolean operators, like And, Or, Not.
- You should also carefully evaluate the sources Internet offers you. Remember that blogs and commercial websites are not always credible. You should access first educational and governmental websites.

Literature Search: Evaluating Sources
When you have already found many sources, you have to choose the most credible ones. This is how you can rank your sources in terms of credibility:
- Peer-reviewed studies published within the last five years;
- Books written on the topic;
- Official documents published by governmental agencies or international organizations;
- Encyclopedia entries;
- Newspaper articles. It is possible to use newspaper articles, but you have to make sure that you are not relying on the data published by the yellow press.
If you take into account these recommendations, you’ll see that any literature search can be made much more productive.
Literature Reports: Instructions for Writing a Good One January 10th, 2012
Literature report is a great possibility to present your personal point of view on a particular literary work to the audience. Literature report provides you with a great variety of ideas. You can discuss the main character of the book, the style of the author or the conflict evoked in the story.
The distinctive feature of the literature report is that your critics should be “fresh” and original, however, at the same time, it should be supported with the body of evidences from other literature sources such as reviews, critical articles or extracts from the book you are writing about.
The most important things about your literature report are enumerated in the following instructions:
- Of course, you should start your literature report with the introduction. What is the most important part of the introduction? Of course, a thesis statement. What kind of statement should you write for a literature report? Writing a thesis for a literature report you should remember to be critical and debatable. And do not forget to put it at the end of the introduction.
- One more important thing about the literature reports writing lies in the fact that it should be based on your personal ideas and not on the critical approach of other authors.
- Support your thesis statement with the body of evidences and relevant quotations. The evidences should prove your arguments and critics.
- Writing a literature report, follow the citation guidance that your tutor provides for you. In the most cases, the literature report should be organized according to the MLA style standards, which are used for literature writing.
Few words about grammar and formatting. Write your literature report in the present tense and in the third person. Moreover, do not forget to italicize books, films and plays used in the literature report. In addition, use the rules of the formal grammar and follow the appropriate style.
Literature Research Papers: Four Ways to Write Perfectly December 15th, 2011
Literature research papers are usually the most interesting home assignments a student may get. Hopefully, all students like American and foreign literature in order to get pleasure from literature research paper writing.
Hereby, you must be aware of all rules and requirements literature research paper writing presupposes. However, we are going to remind you everything you already know adding some new information.
Literature Research Papers Guidelines for Proper Writing:
- First, you have to be well aware of what the book or books are about. Definitely, your literature research paper will look funny if the only thing you have read was the book’s summary.
- When reading the initial piece of literature, please, take notes of the brightest events of the book, citations you liked the most, and just explicitly explained things that will enrich your literature research paper.
- Your own impressions are not enough in order to make a good literature research paper. Use direct quotations and make sure you follow the citation format requirements properly.
- Follow the thesis statement made at the beginning of your paper. Be concise but descriptive in your literature research paper.
Literature research paper writing is a perfect opportunity to show one’s writing talents and abilities. If you are able to read thoroughly and have various emotional ups and downs then, most likely, your literature research paper will be vivid and creative.
Put all possible efforts into your research paper on literature: conduct a wonderful research, follow all stylistic and format requirements, and use brainstorming. Please, do not hesitate to search for other materials on literature research paper writing at this information resource.
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English Literature Courseworks: from Revision to the Final Draft March 30th, 2009
Writing an English literature coursework can be rather a stressful experience, even if you were attentive during lectures and read all the necessary works of literature. However, if you start working early and have some useful instructions, preparing your English literature coursework will be much easier.
In this article, we want to explain you briefly the stages of the English literature coursework writing process.
English literature courseworks: start with revision
Hope you have read all those works required for your course, otherwise chances to end up with a successful English literature coursework are minimal. All you need to do is refresh your memory, take out all notes made, some textbooks that may contain important information, etc. Pay special attention to everything you have studied about Shakespeare and his plays.
English literature courseworks: study teacher’s guidelines
Guidelines that the teacher provided are one of the main keys to success. They explain what exactly you need to do, e.g. to analyze prose or poetry, to discuss something and present your opinion, or make a character analysis.
English literature courseworks: thinking and planning stages
Do not dive into writing straight away. Take time to think over your English literature coursework, things you want to consider, and points you wish to highlight. Then, make an outline.
English literature courseworks: write the first draft
Using an outline you have made, write the first draft of your project. Then, check it carefully. Make sure you have covered all the important points. Check your draft for mistakes and inaccuracies.
English literature courseworks: write the final draft
Only after editing the first draft, get down to writing the final version of your paper. Read the rest of this entry »
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Sample Literature Review Papers: Signs of a Successful Review January 8th, 2009
So, you have already found several sample literature review papers before starting to work on your own review. Definitely, it is a wise decision, because a literature review is going to be an important part of your project, and it should be organized properly.
However, do you know how to distinguish a successful sample literature review paper from a poorly written one? Needless to say, you have to choose only the best sample literature review papers as a guide for preparing own review. Therefore, we have listed some signs of those sample literature review papers that you can use as writing models.
Sign 1: background information
Start reading a sample literature review paper from the very beginning. Does the author provide enough background info on the topic he/she addresses? Can you get from the very beginning what the project will be devoted to?
Sign 2: significance of research
Another important thing to pay attention to is whether the author of the sample literature review paper establishes the rationale behind his/her research, explains the place his/her research will take in the existing knowledge.
Sign 3: analysis
Keep on reading this sample literature review paper. Does the author make a thorough analysis of scholarly works he/she used or the review looks like a list of books, articles, and journals? You also need to make sure that all the works mentioned in the sample literature review paper are relevant to the main research problem.
Sign 4: overall organization
Is your sample literature review paper organized according to some unifying system? There are several ways to arrange a literature review: chronological, methodological, thematic, by publication, etc.
Here, you can find useful info about free downloadable dissertations and a dissertation critique.