Internet Sites and Resources for English Majors


The following sites provide excellent resources for anyone interested in the study of literature
and composition:

Online Literature

UPenn Books Online - over 11,000 literary texts, http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books

"Passions in Poetry" - this site offers hundreds of poems and the section (categorized by
authors) of classical poetry is especially good (it includes major British and American poetry
from the early 14th to late 19th centuries), http://www.netpoets.com.

Bartleby.com - a nicely organized selection of online literature, encyclopedias, and
collections of quotations, http://www.bartleby.com.

The Internet Public Library - a comprehensive selection of books, newspaper, literary
criticism, reference materials, children's and adolescent literature collected by the University
of Michigan. The site currently contains nearly 30,000 texts and/or references,
http://www.ipl.org/col

Calls for Papers

If you'd like to get published, attend a conference, or present a paper at a scholarly conference, these
two sites offer the most comprehensive lists of paper calls:

The English Server - http://english-www.hss.cmu.edu/calls

The UPenn Server - http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP 

Literary Criticism and Theory

"The Voice of the Shuttle" Web Page for Humanities Research. This site offers perhaps the
most comprehensive collection of links to specific authors, genres, theories, syllabi,
academic information, technology, etc., available on the web. The site is an ongoing
project headed by Alan Liu of the University of Southern California - Santa Barbara:
http://vos.ucsb.edu

Jack Lynch's Collection - Rutgers University. Though not as comprehensive as the Voice of
the Shuttle page listed above, Jack Lynch's site is also a goldmine of links to sites on theory,
literary periods, authors, genres, and so forth:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/theory.html 

Yahoo's Links to Criticism and Theory. Another excellent resource for finding materials on
literary theory and criticism:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Criticism_and_Theory

Introduction to Literary Theory. Website of Kristi Siegel, a faculty member of the Mount
Mary College English Department, offering descriptions, bibliographies and key figures of
major twentieth-century critical theories. http://www.geocities.com/kristisiegel/theory.htm 

On-Book – website of Jane Thompson, a faculty member of the Mount Mary College
English Department, providing her own information as well as many links to other literature
and theory resources: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1653

Composition and Writing Resources

A Guide to Writing College English Papers - from the English Department at the University
of Puget Sound - nice clear information and reasonable expectations:
http://www.ups.edu/faculty/dewhite/papers.htm

Writing Tips and Strategies – Collection of mini-lectures by Kristi Siegel, Mount Mary
College faculty member, on various writing techniques such as description, pacing,
developing a thesis statement, using the writing process, eliminating clichés, varying
sentence style and patterns, http://www.geocities.com/kristisiegel 

Writing Better - A Guide for Amherst Students - a nice, clear introduction to writing:
http://www.amherst.edu/~writing/wb_html/wb.html

The Elements of Style - William Strunk, Jr.'s classic 1918 text on writing and style. Timeless
advice. The book is divided into sections for easy accessibility: http://www.bartleby.com/141/

Grammar Resources

This truly superb collection of interactive grammar quizzes (they're actually fun), vocabulary
quizzes, and other writing resources provides an excellent resource for those needing
grammar brush-ups. The site was developed by Dr. Charles Darling from the Capital
Community College. He also includes pages of grammar "bloopers" and other lively
references: http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/original.htm

Jack Lynch's Guide to Grammar and Style: An alphabetical listing and description of
common grammatical glitches. He also has some good bibliographic references:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing

Technology and Literature/Composition

How to Use the Internet for Literary Study - An informative guide written by Professor Greg
Jay at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; besides his own information he also provides
many useful links: http://www.uwm.edu/~gjay/Litcrit/Weblitguide.htm 

Writing and Technology - .pdf files providing visual step-by-step instructions for using
computer-assisted techniques to augment the writing process. Materials developed by Gene
Baer, Kristi Siegel, and Martin Moldenhauer, http://www.geocities.com/kristisiegel

Professional Organizations and Academia

English Departments on the Web -Want to see what other English Departments are doing?
This comprehensive list links to over 1,300 English Departments on the web:
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/english/links/engdpts.html

Modern Language Association (MLA): http://www.mla.org 

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE): http://www.ncte.ie 

Sigma Tau Delta - English Honors Society: http://www.english.org

 

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