Skip to Main Content

English Literature coursework (A-Level): Getting organised

Introduction

Worried booksWork smarter, not harder

This guide has been created to help you to find sources to support your English Literature Coursework.

As you look around for secondary sources, you will soon find you have gathered quite a number - but which was the one that had that excellent quote you want to use, and where did you save it....? You will find you spend less time hunting for information that you have lost and more time working with it if you start your investigation with good habits.

Specifically:Folders

  1. Download any good articles you find, save them in a sensible place and give them sensible names. Yes, you may have the URL, but it is so frustrating when articles are moved or websites changed at a critical moment in your assignment. Take a copy!
  2. Keep a running annotated bibliography to remind yourself what you thought was interesting about that source the first time you read it. Your teacher should be able to ask you for a copy of this at any point to see what progress you are making with your investigation. As an added bonus, if you put your citations into it correctly then you can import them directly into your final essay at the end, saving you from that last-minute panic when you can't find the information you need to cite a source correctly.

Images by (Free-Photos and Alexas_Fotos remixed) and LoveYouAll from Pixabay

Getting started

Log in to Hodder Education Magazines from our Subscription Databases page BEFORE you click the link below

Annotated bibliography

Investigative Journal

Use this instead if you are working with a small number of sources and want space for detailed notes. You might choose to use something like this alongside the Annotated Bibliography to make notes on particularly important sources, or you may not use it at all.

Librarian and EPQ Co-ordinator