English Resources

You may recognize the term "bibliography" from papers you've written: your instructors have likely required that you include a bibliography at the end of your papers that lists all the sources (whether referenced or not) that you used while researching and writing your paper.

Bibliographies are a complete list of all the sources an author referenced while writing his/her own text. It is important for you to write a full bibliography for your academic papers (unless your instructor specifies otherwise) because you must give proper credit for the ideas you use.

Bibliographies are also useful research sources in their own right: often you can find your first few good sources by looking in the bibliographies of your required course readings (individual chapters may have bibliographies/reference lists, or there may be a bibliography/reference list at the end of the book).

If you can find keywords from your research topic in a dictionary or encyclopedia, there are usually bibliographies at the end of each article which can provide sources for further reading. This is often the most useful part of a dictionary article, because it points you directly to some key, influential works on the topic.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style is commonly used for English programs, and other disciplines under the humanities. These resources will help you learn to cite your sources properly in MLA format. 

• Ambrose University Citation Basics: Here is a video of a Student Academic Success workshop on citation basics.
• Ambrose University List of Citation Styles: This is a guide by SAS to many citation styles. It contains links to helpful resources to help you learn MLA style citations. It also has a section on Chicago/Turabian style, which is commonly used in Humanities disciplines such as Philosophy, History, and Biblical Studies. 
• Everything You Need to Know About MLA Citations: This is a link to an eBook which is a good beginner guide for MLA citations. It is better to use the latest MLA Handbook, which is available behind the library desk in our Reserve section, but this is a good electronic option.
• MLA Style Introduction (Owl at Purdue): This is a great resource that will teach MLA citation basics. 

Remember that when you access a source through the Ambrose library catalogue, you can usually copy-paste a citation for it. You will still need to double-check that the citation is correct, but it lays a foundation for you to edit. Find more information here in the "cite" tab: Tools & Tips - Using the Library Catalogue. 

You can also come up to the library circulation desk and ask to check out one of the citation style guides we have on Reserve or make an appointment with Learning Services.