Time-Saving Reminders
Organize – Select a note-taking method that suits you AND supports actively engaging with sources, and then apply that method to keep track of which ideas and insights you’ve gleaned from each source. This will make writing the paper easier and decrease the chances that you’ll plagiarize.
Evaluate - Because there are so many online sources about Shakespeare, it is particularly important that you take the time to evaluate the authority of each source (other than those on this guide) BEFORE investing your time reading the information it provides.
Pause – Stop periodically to assess your progress. Are you staying focused on your essential/subsidiary questions and thesis or have you wandered off on an interesting tangent? Determine what information you still need to find to support your thesis, refocus your attention, and re-search.

Research Process Support

• Refining your topic
• Developing a thesis (includes a thesis generator)
  
• Concept mapping
  
• Exercise instructions
• Interactive sample from UCONN (follow instructions at top of page)
  
• Free online mind-mapping tools
  
• Mindomo
• MindMeister
  
• Keyword vs. subject searching
  
• Search the MW Library - from school or from home
• See Resource Lists - Public tab - Shakeseare Resource List
  
• Destiny search tips (PDF)
  
• Search area libraries individually or all at once
  
• Critical reading
• Taking notes
• Evaluating primary sources
• Evaluating web sites
• Citing your sources
• Noodle Tools (get school subscription information from the library)
• MLA guides from UC Berkeley (PDF) and Diane Hacker
• Zotero
  

Mega Sources
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet - From Terry Gray at Palomar College, widely recognized as THE annotated guide to online sources for studying Shakespeare - Sections include works, life and times, theatre, criticism, Renaissance contemporaries, and sources.
Encyclopaedia Britannica's Guide to Shakespeare - Sections include the Bard, the plays, chronology, Elizabethan Age, Elizabethan Actors and Writers, the Elizabethan Theatre, and more...
Shake Sphere: A Shakespeare Study Guide - From Michael Cummings, a freelance writer and college instructor - Sections include Plays, Sonnets, Long Poems; Shakespeare's craft; The Theatre; Shakespeare's Life; Shakespeare's Times; Glossaries and Lists; and more.
Glossary of Terms Common in Shakespeare's work - Part of Shake Sphere.


Literary Reference Center (requires login) - combines plot summaries, synopses, work overviews, articles, essays, book reviews, and biographies from major respected reference works, books, and over 420 literary journals with the full-text of Shakespeare's poems and plays, as well as many other poems and stories.
JSTOR (requires login) - Multidisciplinary archive of 700+ full-text scholarly journals. Use Advanced Search for the most flexible search options (JSTOR tips), including limiting results to one or more disciplines, such as Art and Art History; History; Language and Literature; and Performing Arts.
Project MUSE (can only access full-text from school) - Database of 300+ full-text scholarly journals for the humanities, including current scholarship (MUSE tips).


His Life
Timeline - From Terry Gray's site - Click on left menu links to move through time.
Life Outline - From the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Describes schooling and Stratford during Shakespeare's lifetime and includes information about his family and career, as well as a section about the question of authorship.
History Resource Center (requires login from home) - Articles from leading scholarly publications, an array of primary sources, and images, maps and charts which provide expansive geographic and chronologic research materials for the study of world history.
Literary Reference Center (requires login) - combines plot summaries, synopses, work overviews, articles, essays, book reviews, and biographies from major respected reference works, books, and over 420 literary journals with the full-text of Shakespeare's poems and plays, as well as many other poems and stories.

His Works
Shakespeare Searched - Search engine designed to provide quick access to passages from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Clusters search results by topic, work, and character to make it easy to find exactly what you're looking for.
IPL Shakespeare Bookshelf - Full-text of works in the 1914 edition of the Oxford Shakespeare available through Bartleby - Click on book's spine to view it.
Complete Works of Shakespeare, Globe Edition ,1866 - From UVA's Electronic Text Center - Select the Web Version link beside the title you wish to view.
Shakespeare in Quarto - From the British Library - High quality images of the British Library's 93 copies of the 21 plays by Shakespeare printed in quarto before the theatres closed in 1642. You can view one at a time or compare two copies.
Literary Reference Center (requires login) - combines plot summaries, synopses, work overviews, articles, essays, book reviews, and biographies from major respected reference works, books, and over 420 literary journals with the full-text of Shakespeare's poems and plays, as well as many other poems and stories.

Criticism of His Works
Early Modern Literary Studies - Webliography of sources for literary study of Shakespeare. Although some links are out-of-date, the link to blogs and ejournals at the top is useful, and these ejournals complement those in MUSE and JSTOR.
Literary Reference Center (requires login) - combines plot summaries, synopses, work overviews, articles, essays, book reviews, and biographies from major respected reference works, books, and over 420 literary journals with the full-text of Shakespeare's poems and plays, as well as many other poems and stories.
JSTOR and Project MUSE are also excellent sources for literary criticism.

His Theatre
Shakespeare's Theatre - From the British Library - Don't overlook the links at the bottom for more information about playhouses, companies, and players.
History Resource Center (requires login from home) - Articles from leading scholarly publications, an array of primary sources, and images, maps and charts which provide expansive geographic and chronologic research materials for the study of world history.
Literary Reference Center (requires login) - combines plot summaries, synopses, work overviews, articles, essays, book reviews, and biographies from major respected reference works, books, and over 420 literary journals with the full-text of Shakespeare's poems and plays, as well as many other poems and stories.


His Times
England in the 16th Century - From the companion site for the PBS production, In Search of Shakespeare - Navigate to locations by clicking names on the map.
The British Monarchy - Official site from the British government
Life in Elizabethan Times - By Maggie Pierce Secara, writer and Renaissance re-enactor. Sections include Games, Food, Money, Religion, Language, Weddings, Masters & Servants, Occupations, The Peers, London, Fashion, Children, Household Management, Pastimes, and more...
History Resource Center (requires login from home) - Articles from leading scholarly publications, an array of primary sources, and images, maps and charts which provide expansive geographic and chronologic research materials for the study of world history.
Making of Modern Law (requires login from home) - Digital images of 22,000 legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926, including those about law in Shakespeare's time.
Literary Reference Center (requires login) - combines plot summaries, synopses, work overviews, articles, essays, book reviews, and biographies from major respected reference works, books, and over 420 literary journals with the full-text of Shakespeare's poems and plays, as well as many other poems and stories.

His Influence
Shakespeare Illustrated - From Harry Rusche at Emory University - 18th and 19th century art (mostly 19th century) inspired by Shakespeare's plays.
Literary Reference Center (requires login) - combines plot summaries, synopses, work overviews, articles, essays, book reviews, and biographies from major respected reference works, books, and over 420 literary journals with the full-text of Shakespeare's poems and plays, as well as many other poems and stories.

Sites with Broader Coverage
Biography Resource Center (requires login from home) - biographical essays about famous people of all types - writers, political leaders, artists, etc.
English Poetry, 1579-1830 - Contains over 10,000 works by over 1,000 poets who wrote in Spenserian stanzas or composed an imitation of Gray's Elegy. Documents how each writer was read by contemporaries and successors. Navigate with "To the Database" drop-down menu choices.
16thc Renaissance English Literature - Part of the award-winning Luminarium site. Writers include Sir Thomas More, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and more. Use the buttons on the bottom left to switch to other time periods (e.g. Medieval, 17thc, 18thc).