ENG 415/515 - Gender & Genre - English - LibGuides at Central Washington University

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This guide contains a compilation of resources to help you get started with research assignments for English 415/515. You will find tips on getting started using the OneSearch search engine, recommended databases, and tips for searching the Internet.

Remember, you can always ask the libraries through call, email, chat, or drop by to meet with a librarian. We're here to help!

Recommended Resources

JSTOR
Contains the complete back issues of over 600 core scholarly journals in the natural and applied sciences, as well as the arts, humanities, and the social sciences.
Literature Criticism (Gale Literature)
Literature Criticism covers a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres, offering tens of thousands of hard-to-find critical essays. Database subscriptions include the following titles: Contemporary literary criticism; Nineteenth-Century literature criticism; Literature criticism from 1400-1800; and Children's literature review. Formerly Literature Criticism Online.
Project Muse
Provides searchable full text of over 200 scholarly journals from scholarly publishers and covers literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and other subject areas.
ProQuest Periodicals Archive Online
Periodicals Archive Online is a major archive that makes backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of titles. The database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages. CWU has access to Periodicals Archive Online Foundation Collection, Periodicals Archive Online Foundation Collection 2 and 3. **Stellingwerf gift purchase
Literary Reference Center Plus
Literary Reference Center Plus (EBSCO) is a full-text database that contains literary criticism, synopses, work overviews, author biographies, book reviews, and much more.
Defining Gender
This collection provides access to a vast body of original British source material that will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective. **Stellingwerf gift purchase
Exploring Race in Society
This database offers essential content covering important issues related to race in society today. Full-text essays, articles, reports and other reliable sources provide an in-depth look at the history of race and provide critical context for learning more about topics associated with race, ethnicity, diversity and inclusiveness.

Search operators help clarify, narrow, or broaden a search. Here are tips for using them in your searches:

Quotes

Quotes can be used to identify and search for a specific phrasing of words strung together. Quotes can be very useful for searching titles. For example,

The Color Purple	Searches all instances of the term "color" and "purple", ranking instances where they are together higher
"The Color Purple"	Looks for instances for the entire phrase "The Color Purple", and when those words exist in that order

Boolean Operators

These narrow or broaden a search. Using all-caps in OneSearch is important, and you'll get different results by using lowercase.

Puppy AND Kitten --- Returns instances where both "puppy" and "kitten" are mentioned in the record

Puppy OR Kitten --- Returns instances where either "puppy" and "kitten" are mentioned in the record

Puppy NOT Kitten --- Returns instances of the word "puppy", but not where "kitten" is included in the record

Created by the librarians at Northwest Arkansas Community College Library. See their guide for other search hacks: http://library.nwacc.edu/search-hacks/home

Wildcards

Wildcards can be used to allow for multiple characters in a word. You use a wildcard operator to replace a character in a word, or a word ending.

Single character wildcards: ?

Example: wom?n = women or woman

Multi-character wildcards: *

Example: explain* = explained, explaining, etc.

Citation Styles & Tools
by Elizabeth Brown Last Updated Jun 4, 2025 690 views this year

MLA Formatting and Style Guide - Purdue OWL
The Purdue OWL is a reliable resource for understanding how to properly cite sources using MLA 9th edition, including how to format Works Cited and in-text citations.