Research guides: English Language & Literature: Reference

Reference

What are reference resources?

Examples of reference sources include:

encyclopædias
dictionaries
biographical sources
guides
handbooks
manuals

They often contain foundational information, such as:

definitions of terms
verification of factual information
overviews on your topic
background information
research and writing support

They are useful to consult during the early stages of your research and can help you to:

learn the terminology appropriate for your topic
understand your topic's broad context
establish a coherent organizational structure for your work

Citations

Guides

These citation guides can help you with formatting style for references and bibliographies:

Style Guides for MLA, APA, and more

Purdue OWL MLA Formatting Guide

Zotero

Zotero is an open-source software available to University of Waterloo students, faculty, and staff to assist with collecting, managing, and citing references. Citations are quickly and easily saved University of Waterloo Library catalogues and databases. Notes can then be added to these citations. Zotero offers various citation style options for the automatically generated bibliographies.

Zotero can be used offline or be synced with a cloud space to be used on multiple devices.

Annual research reviews

Dictionaries, encyclopædias, glossaries, etc.

For a comprehensive list of reference resources for all disciplines, see the Online Reference Shelf.

Literature Online (LION)
Full text journal articles and other criticism and reference resources on works relating to English and American literature, and early Canadian poetry.
Coverage: 8th century - present
Literature Resource Center
Biographical entries, overviews, full-text literary criticism, and reviews of writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world. A GALE product.
Coverage: 1750s - present

Canadian Early Women Writers
From Simon Fraser University - entries provide biographical information, lists of publications, further biographical references and notes on archival sources for 470 Canadian women authors.
Dictionary of Old English, Web corpus
Dictionary of Old English: A to I
Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed.)
ELL2 "cannot be surpassed for its depth, currency, interdisciplinary coverage, and sheer comprehensiveness.” Coverage includes the language situation in countries all over the world, language education policies in the world's major regions, language and the brain, animal communication, second-language acquisition, etc.
Encyclopedia of Rhetoric
Covers the knowledge from classics, philosophy, literature, literary theory, cultural studies, speech and communications, and discusses basic concepts and themes throughout rhetoric.
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
Covers topics in linguistics, including areas of historical, comparative, formal, mathematical, functional, philosophical, and sociolinguistics.
John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
"An encyclopaedic guide to critical theory. Although particularly relevant to literature and linguistic studies, it may also be of interest to researchers in social sciences and humanities."
Middle English Dictionary
The print Middle English Dictionary, (Porter Reference PE 679 .M54), offers a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500.This electronic version of the MED preserves all the details of the print MED, but goes far beyond this, by converting its contents into an enormous database, searchable in ways impossible within any print dictionary.
Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies
See the Contents for specific articles.

National biographies

Research guides by subject

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