bibliography english literature coursework

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Thoughts about teaching, literature, and teaching literature

A Student Guide: How to Reference for A Level Coursework

The below guide as to how to write references for A Level coursework uses the MLA citation style. This is of course not the only citation style and is not inherently better than others, but the key is to be consistent.

Italics Vs Quotation Marks

• If you are citing any complete work, for example, a novel, a volume of poetry, an anthology, a film, a TV series, a play, or a newspaper then you should cite that text using italics.
• For example, The Great Gatsby, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Spring and All, Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, The Guardian, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Forrest Gump .
• But, if you are citing a work that is contained within another work, for example an individual poem, a television episode, an essay, a journal article, or a short story then you cite that using single quotation marks.
• For example, ‘The Red Wheelbarrow’, ‘The Death of an Author’, ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’, ‘Sonnet 101’, ‘The One with the Candy Hearts’, ‘In the Penal Colony’.
• However, not every poem goes in quotation marks. It just depends if it was published within a volume or as a self-contained entity. For example, The Waste Land is in italics because it was published in book form. Paradise Lost is also in italics because it is a self-contained book and was not published within another work.
• Also, if a poem is titled the same as the volume that doesn’t matter. You would write: ‘Spring and All’ is contained within Spring and All .
• Finally, what do you do if a complete work is contained with a larger work, for example an anthology?
• For example, Death of a Salesman is contained within The Norton of American Literature .
• You need to go back to the original publication: Death of a Salesman was originally published as a self-contained work so it will always be in italics
• It doesn’t matter if Hamlet or The Waste Land is in an anthology; they will never be ‘Hamlet’ or ‘The Waste Land’.

Double Spaces

• Always double space
• Everything, other than footnotes, must be double spaced
• How to double space: highlight the text, right click, go to paragraph, go to line spacing, click on the drop down box and choose double.

Quotation Marks

• When quoting something, always use single quotation marks
• Double quotation marks are the American version
• So, ‘ The Waste Land is amazing’ not “ The Waste Land is amazing”.
• The latter is tantamount to writing color instead of colour
• If you are quoting within a quotation then you can use double marks. For example, Just above the writer wrote ‘According to Bob, The Waste Land is “an amazing poem that changed the tone of poetry forever”’.

How to Cite within an Essay

• It is essential that any work that you make use of within the essay is cited appropriately and accurately.
• You are using the MLA style, which means you do not cite with footnotes, but rather parenthetically.
• Footnotes can still be used in your essay, but they would be discursive, which means they can add information that is relevant, but does not fit in the main body of the essay. Do this sparingly.
• So, each time you quote from any text, whether it is the primary text or an article, you insert a page reference in brackets next to that quotation
• For example: When Faulkner writes that the sun was ‘glistening’ (106) he accentuates its beauty.
• If you are analysing one specific passage and quoting from it frequently within a short space in your essay then just reference the final quotation. For example, When Faulkner writes that the sun was ‘glistening’ and that it was like a ‘jewel’, which had been ‘pocketed in the sky’ (106) he accentuates its beauty.
• If it is not clear where the quotation is from either because you do not state the writer in the main body or because you reference more than one text from that writer include this information parenthetically. For example, just as the sun was ‘glistening’ (Faulkner 106) so too Eliot describes the moon as ‘shining’ (334).
• The idea is that a reader would be able to look at your quotation and know the author and text (both usually evident in the main body of the essay) and also page number (cited parenthetically) and then look at the relevant entry in the bibliography and as such find the full and precise reference.

How to Write a Bibliography

• The bibliography is a complete list of all sources that you have referenced throughout the essay and it comes at the end of the essay
• Surname, forename. Title of text including editor if relevant. (Place of publication: publisher, date). This is for anything other than a journal article.
• For example, Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson ed. by Alfred R. Ferguson et al. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971)
• Frost, Robert. ‘The Pasture’, Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays , ed. by Richard Poirier & Mark Richardson (New York: Library of America, 1995)
• Eliot, TS. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, The Complete Poems & Plays , (London: Faber & Faber, 2004)
• Faulkner, William. Light in August . (London and New York: Vintage, 2002).
• If you are citing a journal article then use the following format: Surname, forename. Name of article using ‘’. Name of journal using italics. Issue number. Publication date. Page numbers of the article within the journal.
• For example: Brinkman, Barth. ‘Scrapbooking Modernism: Marianne Moore and the Making of the Modern Collage Poem’. Modernism / modernity . 18.1. (2011). 43-66.

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English Literature: A Guide to Resources: Bibliographies

• Annual Surveys of Research
• Atlases & Gazeteers

Bibliographies

• Biographical Sources
• Chronologies
• Explication Sources
• Literary Terms and Concepts
• Specialized Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
• Periodical Articles
• Primary Sources
• Book Reviews
• New Acquisitions
• Citation Tools
• Bibliography of Australian Literature Call Number: Olin Reference Z4021 .B525 2001 Publication Date: Australian Scholarly Pub., 2001-2008. 4 vols. Records separately published volumes by Australian authors from 1788 through 2000, except for authors whose first books appeared after 1992. Includes index of variant names and pseudonyms, title index, a separate bibliography of children's books (1989 - 2000), as well as a list of excluded and relocated authors.
• British Fiction 1800-1829: A Database of Production, Circulation & Reception "Allows users to examine bibliographical records of 2,272 works of fiction written by approximately 900 authors, along with a large number of contemporary materials (including anecdotal records, circulating-library catalogues, newspaper advertisements, reviews, and subscription lists)."
• Chaucer Bibliography Online "...includes materials from the Annotated Chaucer Bibliography published annually in Studies in the Age of Chaucer and is sponsored by the NCS and the library of the University of Texas at San Antonio. It is currently maintained by Mark Allen of the University of Texas at San Antonio."
• New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature Call Number: Olin Reference Z 2011 B32+ 1969 (also Olin Room 501) Publication Date: Cambridge UP, 1969-1977, 5 vols. Covers English literature from 600 A.D. to modern times. Arranged chronologically and under periods by literary form (e.g. poetry, prose, drama). References given for each author generally include bibliographies of that author, collected editions of his/her works, individual works with dates of 1st editions and subsequent editions within the next 50 years and some biographical and critical citations about the author.
• Oxford Bibliographies Online: British and Irish Literature Offers peer-reviewed, annotated bibliographies on British and Irish literature. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.
• Oxford Bibliographies: Victorian Literature Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on the literature of the Victorian period, which encompasses the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable. Contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
• Reference Guide for English Studies Call Number: Olin Reference Z2011 M32 1990 Publication Date: Univ. of California, 1990 A large bibliographic overview of literary studies -- not limited to Anglo-American -- arranged by period, country, genre, author, etc., Lists and often annotates important secondary sources. Lists major journals as well as books in any given subject area.
• << Previous: Atlases & Gazeteers
• Next: Biographical Sources >>
• Last Updated: Jul 16, 2024 10:14 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/englishlit

English Literature (A-Level Coursework): Getting organised

• Getting organised
• Locating sources
• Books and book chapters
• Using sources
• Teachers' notes

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.

• 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!
• 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

Organising your digital workspace

• Changing privacy settings in Safari

Key takeaways:

• Save copies of useful documents and keep a note of their URLs
• Save these documents in a single folder - but make sure that this is backed up.
• Give them sensible filenames, I recommend Author(Date)Short_title ( Source)

e.g. I would give this article the filename:

Ingersoll(1993)Echoes-of-Orwell(JSTOR).pdf

Create a folder in a sensible place on your computer to save your work to. Call it something like English Coursework.

Setting up your annotated bibliography

Download the Annotated Bibliography template (to the right) and save it into your English Coursework folder, with a name like

Annotated Bibliography <your surname>

Put your name and class in the header.

Adding citations

• Windows computer

This video is for Windows PC users - if you usually use a Mac then please view the one on the other tab.

Add the citation for your main text (and your second text if you have decided on it) to your annotated bibliography document

If you need further information on citing and referencing in Word, use the Citing and Referencing LibGuide .

This video is for Mac users - if you usually use a Windows PC then please view the one on the other tab.

If you need further information on citing and referencing in Word, use the  Citing and Referencing LibGuide .

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.

Print guides for adding citations

• Citing and Referencing in Word 2016 for Windows
• Citing and Referencing in Word 2016 for Mac

Head of Library and Archives

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• Last Updated: Apr 29, 2024 12:15 PM
• URL: https://oakham-rutland.libguides.com/ALevelEngLit

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• Bibliographies
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Finding Bibliographies

Bibliographies are useful for finding the most important publications on a given topic and can range from the general to the specific. There are specialized bibliographies on individual authors, genres, topics and periods. 

The most general are library catalogs (Omni) and union catalogs (e.g. Amicus, the National Union Catalog, the British Library General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975 to name a few).

More specialized bibliographies may be more useful for seeking works on a given topic. For more bibliographies, see those listed under Genre Guides and History of Criticism .

If you are working on a topic that is of interest to many others, you may find that someone has already compiled a bibliography for you. 

To find bibliographies in Omni, search by keyword by typing "bibliography" or "reference guide" and topical keyword.

"english literature" AND bibliography

Also consider searching by subject heading in the Advanced Search screen and adding the term, bibliography. For example:

To find bibliographies for individual authors, search for the author's name as a subject and scroll down to the sub-heading "bibliography" if available.

Dickens Charles 1812-1870--Bibliography

Specialized Bibliographies

Research guides and bibliographies of bibliographies.

• << Previous: Biographies
• Next: Concordances & Quotations >>

Bibliographies like  Oxford Bibliographies offer  authoritative research guides helping you to narrow the vast number of citations to the best scholarship on a given topic.

How to Write Annotated Bibliographies

How to Write an Annotated Bibliography (Concordia University) 

How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography: The Annotated Bibliography (Cornell University)

Writing an Annotated Bibliography (U of Toronto)

What is an Annotated Bibliography (SMU)

• Last Updated: Jul 22, 2024 3:52 PM
• Subjects: English Language and Literature

English Literature: Citing references

• Key resources
• Citing references

Referencing guide for English Literature

The Department of English Literature have provided a referencing style guide, based on the MHRA Style Guide, 3rd ed. You can download a copy here, or from Blackboard.

Whenever you refer to another person's work in your own essay, dissertation or article you must acknowledge them and give full details of your source. You risk being accused of plagiarism if you fail to do so.

• Style Guide: References and Citations Dept of English Literature, 2020-2023

MHRA referencing for English Literature

MHRA referencing distinguishes between citations for primary texts (e.g. novels, poems etc) and secondary texts (e.g. critical works, additional information).

Most in-text citations are in footnotes. Full details (including editions and translation details if appropriate) should be included in the footnotes for the first mention of a text for both primary and secondary texts. After this, a shortened version can be used, either in brackets in the body of the text, or in footnotes. Whichever method you choose, be consistent.

Examples for primary and secondary texts:

In-text, first mention, primary text: (in footnote)  Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems , ed. by Thomas H. Johnson (London: Faber, 1970), p. 172. Further references to this text are from this edition and are given in the text.

In-text, following mentions, primary text: (in body of text) ( Dickinson, p.174) or (p.174)

In-text, first mention, secondary text: (in footnote) Brian Vickers, Francis Bacon and Renaissance Prose (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. 49.

In-text, following mentions, secondary text: (in footnote) Vickers, p. 85.

In bibliography, primary and secondary texts:  Dickinson, Emily,  The Complete Poems , ed. by Thomas H. Johnson (London: Faber, 1970)

Where to find guidance on MHRA Referencing

First, refer to your Department's referencing guide linked above. You will find additional examples and explanations in the  MHRA Handbook  below, and further examples of specific references e.g. government publications using the 'Cite them Right' guide below. If you can't find the answer in either of the guides below, please speak to your Academic Liaison Librarian.

• MHRA referencing guidance in Cite Them Right
• Contact your Academic Liaison Librarian

MHRA 4th ed. referencing summary and examples

• Edited book
• Chapter in Edited Book
• Journal article
• 2 authors / editors
• 3 authors / editors
• 4 and more authors / editors
• Everything else...

Details of the books, articles, websites and other formats of information you want to reference are entered using a footnote system. A note system has three elements;

• A superscript number in the text, pointing your reader to the information about your source for the idea or quotation
• A footnote corresponding to each superscript number in the bottom margin of the page, with full details of your source *
• A bibliography at the end of your document listing all your sources alphabetically

* the only exception to this is when you are referring frequently to a literary work like a novel, play or poem - see the box below on  Frequent references to literary works eg novels, plays, poems etc

Whenever you want to refer to an idea or quote something, insert a superscript number at the end of your sentence, after the full stop. 1  Start at 1 then number each new reference consecutively - use a new number each time you reference something (even if you've previously referenced the same source.)

In Word, you can do this in the References ribbon >> Insert Footnote, and Word will create a corresponding numbered note either in the footer of the page.

In the corresponding footnote, you write the full reference for the item you want to refer to, with the specific page number, or page range, at the end.

1  Elleke Boehmer,  Postcolonial Poetics: 21st-Century Critical Readings (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), p. 42.

If you refer to the same source later in your writing, you should use an abbreviated version of the citation in your footnote or endnote - the short version usually includes only the author's surname, the first few words of the title and a page number or page range;

2  Boehmer,  Postcolonial Poetics , pp. 142–143.

At the end of your work, insert a Bibliography listing all your sources in alphabetical order of the author / creator's surname. In the Bibliography, reverse the order of the first author's name so that it appear Surname, Firstname - if there is more than one author, keep the subsequent authors' names in their usual order.

Bibliography

Atwood, Margaret,  The Handmaid's Tale  (Virago, 1987)

Boehmer, Elleke,  Postcolonial Poetics: 21st-Century Critical Readings (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)

Furniss, Tom and Michael Bath, Reading Poetry: An Introduction (Prentice Hall / Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1996)

Wu, Duncan,  Romanticism: An Anthology , 4th edn (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)

——  Wordsworth: An Inner Life  (Blackwell, 2002)

This is written as a brief introductory guide - for full rules and guidance of the MHRA referencing style, please see chapters 7 and 8 of the MHRA style guide Fourth Edition, below;

Footnote - first time

1  Author Firstname Author Surname,  Title of Book  (Publisher Name, Year), p. page number.

Footnote - subsequent short version

2  Author Surname, Shortened T itle , p. page number.

Author Surname, Author Firstname,  Title of Book, ( Publisher Name, Year)

Footnote - first time

1  Kinitra D. Brooks,  Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror  (Rutgers University Press, 2018), p. 79.

Footnote - subsequent short version

2  Brooks,  Searching for Sycorax , pp.   42–43.

Brooks, Kinitra D.,  Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror  (Rutgers University Press, 2018)

1   Title of Book,  ed. by Editor Firstname Editor Lastname (Publisher Name, Year), p. page.

2  Shortened T itle , p. page.

Editor Surname, Editor Firstname, ed.  Title of Book ( Publisher Name, Year)

1  Reading Poets: A New Anthology , ed. by Vic Pickup   (Two Rivers Press, 2024), p. 63.

2  Reading Poets , ed. by Pickup, pp. 89–90.

Pickup, Vic (ed.),  Reading Poets: A New Anthology (Two Rivers Press, 2024)

The title of the chapter goes in single quotation marks in plain text - follow this with a comma and the word 'in' before the book title in italics. Include the start and end page numbers for the chapter after the publisher and year, then include your specific page number for this reference in brackets after that.

1  Chapter Author Firstname Chapter Author Surname, 'Title of Chapter', in  Title of Book , ed. by Editor Firstname Editor Surname (Publisher Name, Year), pp. page number – page number (p. page number), doi:doi number

2  Chapter Author Surname, 'Shortened Title', p. page.

Chapter Author Surname, Chapter Author Firstname, 'Title of Chapter', in  Title of Book, ed. by Editor Firstname Editor Surname (Publisher Name, Year), pp. page number – page number, doi:doi number

1  Melissa E. Sanchez, 'Was Sexuality Racialized for Shakespeare?: Anthony and Cleopatra', in  The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race, ed. by Ayanna Thompson (Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp. 123–138 (pp. 125-26), doi:10.1017/9781108684750.009.

2  Sanchez, 'Was Sexuality Racialized', p. 136.

Sanchez, Melissa E., 'Was Sexuality Racialized for Shakespeare?: Anthony and Cleopatra', in  The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race, ed. by Ayanna Thompson (Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp. 123–138, doi:10.1017/9781108684750.009

The title of the article is given in single quotation marks before the Journal title. Instead of a publisher and city of publication, (as for books,) the Volume and Part number of the journal are given with a DOI wherever one is available.

1  Author Firstname Author Surname, 'Title of Article', Title of Journal,  volume number.part number (Year), pp. page number–page number (p. page number), doi:doi number.

In Footnote - subsequent short version

2  Author Surname, 'Shortened Title of Article', p. page number.

In Bibliography

Author Surname, Author Firstname, 'Title of Article', Title of Journal,  volume number.part number (Year), pp. page number–page number, doi:doi number

1  Janice A. Thompson, '"O That my Words Were Written Down!": Contested Bodies and Unwelcome Words in the Book of Job and Modern Poetry of Disability', Horizons,  49.2 (2022), pp. 277–304 (p. 289), doi:10.1017/hor.2022.50.

2  Thompson, '"Oh That my Words"', pp. 283–284.

Bibliograph y

Thompson, Janice A. '"O That my Words Were Written Down!": Contested Bodies and Unwelcome Words in the Book of Job and Modern Poetry of Disability', Horizons,  49.2 (2022), pp. 277–304, doi:10.1017/hor.2022.50

Separate authors' / editors' names with the word 'and' - only invert the first name listed in the Bibliography entry. If they are editors, use the abbreviation 'eds' in brackets after their names eg. (eds),

1  Author Firstname Author Surname, and Author Firstname Author Surname,  Title of Book  (Publisher Name, Year), p. page number.

2  Author Surname and Author Surname,  Shortened T itle , p. page number.

Author Surname, Author Firstname, and Author Firstname Author Surname,  Title of Book ( Publisher Name, Year)

1  Martin Munro, and Celia Britton,  American Creoles: The Francophone Caribbean and the American South  (Liverpool University Press, (2012), p. 42.

2 Munro and Britton, American Creoles , p. 142–143.

Munro, Martin, and Celia Britton,  American Creoles: The Francophone Caribbean and the American South  (Liverpool University Press, (2012)

Separate authors' / editors' names with a comma then the word 'and' - only invert the first name listed in the Bibliography entry. If they are editors, in the bibliography after listing their names use the abbreviation 'eds' in brackets eg. (eds),

1   Title of Book,  ed. by Editor Firstname Editor Surname, Editor Firstname Editor Surname and Editor Firstname Editor Surname (Publisher Name, Year), p. page.

2  Shortened T itle , ed. by Editor Surname, Editor Surname, and Editor Surname, p. page.

Editor Surname, Editor Firstname, Editor Firstname Editor Surname, and Editor Firstname Editor Surname (eds),  Title of Book, ( Publisher Name, Year)

1   Contemporary Publishing and the Culture of Books , ed. by Alison Baverstock, Richard Bradford, and Madelena Gonzalez (Routledge, 2020), p. 242.

2 Contemporary Publishing, ed. by Baverstock, Bradford, and Gonzalez, pp. 89–90.

Baverstock, Alison, Richard Bradford, and Madelena Gonzalez (eds),  Contemporary Publishing and the Culture of Books , (Routledge, 2020)

List only the first author's name, followed by 'and others'. If they are editors, in the bibliography after listing their names use the abbreviation 'eds' in brackets eg. (eds).

1   Title of Book,  ed. by Editor Firstname Editor Surname and others (Publisher Name, Year), p. page.

2  Shortened T itle , ed. by Editor Surname and others, p. page.

Editor Surname, Editor Firstname, and others (eds),  Title of Book  (Publisher Name, Year)

1  Desire in Dante and the Middle Ages,  ed. by Manuele Gragnolati and others (Legenda, 2012), p. 179.

2  Desire in Dante , ed. by Gragnolati and others, p. 156–157.

Gragnolati, Manuele, and others (eds),  Desire in Dante and the Middle Ages  (Legenda, 2012)

Put the URL of the website in angle brackets eg. <URL>, and include both the date the website was published and the date you accessed it.

Websites - named author

Author Firstname Author Surname, ‘Title of page or article’, Title of internet site, DD Month Year site was published <URL> [accessed DD Month YYYY].

Footnote  - subsequent short version

Author Surname, ‘Title'. 

Author Surname, Author Firstname, ‘Title of page or article’, Title of internet site, DD Month Year site was published <URL> [accessed DD Month YYYY]

Shola Lee, ‘Holly Jackson: "Obviously, I Love Murder - Fictional Murder’, BBC News, 7 July 2024 <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgk41ylmgeo> [accessed 11 July 2024].

Lee, ‘Holly Jackson'. 

Lee, Shola, , ‘Holly Jackson: "Obviously, I Love Murder - Fictional Murder’, BBC News, 7 July 2024 <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgk41ylmgeo> [accessed 11 July 2024]

Websites - no named author

Footnote / Endnote - first time

1  ‘Title of page or article’, Title of internet site, DD Month Year site was published <URL> [accessed DD Month YYYY].

In Footnote / Endnote - subsequent short version

2 ' Title'.

‘Title of page or article’, Title of internet site, DD Month Year site was published <URL> [accessed DD Month YYYY]

‘Amy Levy’, Orlando, 2022 <https://orlando-cambridge-org.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/profiles/levyam> [accessed 11 July 2024].

‘Amy Levy'.

‘Amy Levy’, Orlando, 2022 <https://orlando-cambridge-org.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/profiles/levyam> [accessed 11 July 2024]

For examples and guidance on how to format footnote and bibliography references for all other formats - videos, films, podcasts, social media posts, art installations and literally anything you can think of - take a look at the Cite them right guidance;

• MHRA 4th ed referencing guidance on Cite Them Right

MHRA referencing 4th ed. further help on Cite them Right

This online guide has examples of how to reference books, articles, conferences, archives, all different types of art works, performances and exhibitions, digital and social media - literally anything you can think of!

Find out more on our   EndNote webpages:

• Library guide to EndNote Information on using EndNote and Endnote online, and details of training sessions.

For information on other options for electronic management of your references see our guide to Managing references:

• Managing references An overview of different systems for managing your references.

Get help from your academic liaison librarian

Further help

For help with citing specific types of publication contact your subject librarian.

For advice on using references in your work, and how to use them to support your arguments, consult the guidance on the Study Advice website or make an appointment with them.

• Study Advice Helping students to achieve study success with guides, video tutorials, seminars and appointments.
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• Last Updated: Jul 17, 2024 1:10 PM
• URL: https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/english-literature

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AS and A-level English Literature A

• Specification
• Planning resources
• Teaching resources
• Assessment resources
• Introduction
• Specification at a glance
• 3.1 Love through the ages
• 4.1 Love through the ages
• 4.2 Texts in shared contexts

4.3 Independent critical study: texts across time

• Scheme of assessment
• Non-exam assessment administration (A-level only)
• General administration

In Texts across time, students write a comparative critical study of two texts.

This specification is committed to the notion of autonomous personal reading and Texts across time provides a challenging and wide-ranging opportunity for independent study. Possible themes for the comparison are indicated below, but this is not a set list and students are free to develop their own interests from their own wider and independent reading.

Texts chosen for study must maximise opportunities for writing about comparative similarity and difference and must allow access to a range of critical views and interpretations, including over time . Students should take an autonomous approach to the application and evaluation of a range of critical views.

The title 'Independent critical study' highlights the important idea that, within a literature course, students should have the opportunity to work independently. Although one common text could, if required, be taught to a whole cohort, at least one text should be studied independently by each student. Texts should always be chosen with your guidance and support. Students should also individually negotiate their own task.

In Texts across time, students write a comparative critical study of two texts on a theme of their choice. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

• the struggle for identity
• crime and punishment
• minds under stress
• nostalgia and the past
• satire and dystopia
• war and conflict
• representations of race and ethnicity
• representations of sexuality
• representations of women
• representations of men
• representations of social class and culture.

The spirit of this component is for independent study, with schools and colleges submitting work on a range of texts and tasks. Schools and colleges are encouraged to check the appropriateness of texts and tasks with their non-exam assessment adviser, especially where there may be some uncertainty on the approach being taken, either by the school or college as a whole or by individual students.

• The word count is 2,500 words.
• Tasks should be designed to ensure that students address all assessment objectives in their essay response.
• An appropriate academic bibliography (not included within the 2,500 word count) must be included.
• An appropriately academic form of referencing must be used.

The following conditions apply to the texts chosen:

• one text must have been written pre-1900
• two different authors must be studied
• set texts listed for the A-level exam components cannot be used for non-exam assessment, even if they will not be used in the exam
• the essay is comparative and connective so equal attention must be paid to both texts
• a poetry text could be either one longer narrative poem or a single authored collection of shorter poems. If using a collection of poetry, students must have studied the whole text and select at least two poems to write about in detail as examples of the wider collection
• single authored collections of short stories are permissible. If using a collection of short stories, students must have studied the whole text and select at least two stories to write about in detail as examples of the wider collection
• texts chosen for study may include texts in translation that have been influential and significant in the development of literature in English. The translated text should be treated as the original writer's own words for assessment purposes. Therefore, schools and colleges should ensure that they use a version recognised by academia as being a high quality translation which supports the original author's writing appropriately.

Recommended texts

Texts listed in the A-level core set text and comparative set text lists in Sections 4.1 and 4.2 cannot be studied for non-exam assessment. Texts chosen for study may include texts in translation that have been influential and significant in the development of literature in English.

Possible pre-1900 texts include, but are not limited to:

NEA prohibited texts

Students cannot use the following texts for non-exam assessment as they appear on the exam set text lists.

Examples of choices of non-exam assessment texts and possible connections

Compare and contrast the presentation of British attitudes to race and ethnicity in The Moonstone and in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth in the light of this view.

In what ways do you think the Gothic settings of these texts help the writers to shape their presentation of heroines in peril?

Compare and contrast the presentation of Sue Trinder in Fingersmith with Marian Halcombe in The Woman in White in the light of this view.

UCL Philosophy

Guide to Referencing for Coursework

Many different ways of giving references are used in academic publications. All systems are acceptable, provided they are applied consistently.

For your guidance, we suggest the following, which is a simplified version of the Harvard system:

1. References may be given either in the main text of your essay, or in a footnote or endnote. References are in brackets and take the form of the author's surname, followed by date of publication, followed (if appropriate) by page number(s), e.g. (Wiggins 1997, 251). Note that all quotations must be supplied with page references, but if you are referring to an author's text in general terms, then of course page numbers are not required. 

2. Full details of all the works to which you refer must be supplied in a list of references or bibliography at the end of your essay. (See below regarding what form these should take.)

Some finer points regarding references given in the main text or in footnotes/endnotes:

• Authors' names are given without initials, e.g. (Dennett 1996). Initials need to be given only when two authors with the same surname are referred to, e.g. (Smith, A. 1996; Smith, W. 1994).
• When referring to more than one article published in the same year by the same author , use lower-case letters to differentiate them, e.g. (Henrich 1981a) and (Henrich 1981b).
• If you refer to republished historical works, it is good practice to give the date of original publication in square brackets, e.g. (Kant 1997, 26 [1786] ).
• If the name of the author is already given in the text, then the date alone should be added in brackets, e.g. '... work by Fodor (1981) shows the importance of understanding ...'
• References to two or more works should be in alphabetical order, separated by a semi-colon, e.g. (Budd 1991; Goodman 1970; Wollheim 1986a; Wollheim 1986b).

Full bibliographical references:

References should be listed in alphabetical order according to author surname, regardless of whether the work is a whole book, an edited collection, a chapter/article in an edited collection, a journal paper, or an online publication.

A book reference should contain the following information: author/editor(s) surname; author/editor(s) first name or initial(s); date; title (in italics); special edition (e.g. 2nd or revised); place of publication (city); name of publisher. E.g.:

Allison, Henry (2004), Kant's Transcendental Idealism: An Interpretation and Defense , revised edition (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press).

Ariew, Roger, and Eric Watkins (eds) (2009), Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources , 2nd edn. (Indianapolis: Hackett).

References to chapters/articles in an edited collection should contain the following information: author surname; author first name or initial(s); date of edited collection; title of chapter/article (in inverted commas); full name of editor(s); title of edited collection (in italics); place of publication (city); name of publisher. E.g.:

Davidson, Donald (1982), 'Paradoxes of Irrationality', in Richard Wollheim and James Hopkins (eds), Philosophical Essays on Freud (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Halbig, C. (2008), 'Varieties of Nature in Hegel and McDowell', in Jakob Lindgaard (ed.), John McDowell: Experience, Norm, and Nature (Oxford: Blackwell).

References to papers/articles in journals should contain the following information: author surname; author first name or initial(s); date of issue of journal; title of article (in inverted commas); name of journal (in italics); volume number; article pages. E.g.:

McDowell, John (1995), 'Knowledge and the Internal', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 55, 877-893

All internet publications should be treated as if they were hard copy, i.e. cited by author's name and date in the main text and full citation in the bibliography. In the bibliography you should give the web address and also indicate the date on which you retrieved the information, as web-based information is prone to change. E.g.:

Parfit, Derek (1998), 'Why Anything? Why This?',  https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v20/n02/derek-parfit/why-anything-why-this (retrieved 26/7/2022).

Rohlf, M. (2010), 'Immanuel Kant', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/ (retrieved 15/8/2012)

Regarding lectures/handouts : It is seldom good practice to cite something that was said during the course of a lecture, or text from a course handout. You should normally aim to cite published references, and should not cite a lecture or handout simply to avoid searching the literature for yourself. If you do need to cite a lecturer or a handout, because the information in question is not in the published literature, then you should just put a reference in the text of your coursework, without putting any further entry in your list of references, e.g. 'It can be objected to Locke that ... (Paul Snowdon, lecture 15/03/2012)' or 'It can be objected to Locke that ... (Paul Snowdon, lecture handout)'.

This discussion is now closed.

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