A guide to reference sources in all humanities fields, Blazek is a basic bibliographic resource and is useful particularly to those who find their work taking them out of the narrower confines of literary study and into philosophy, religion, the arts, etc.

Although not as comprehensive as Marcuse (below), Harner is broader in scope than most other British/U.S. literature guides in that it covers languages of literary study other than English as well as comparative literature, literature-related fields, and on-line databases. Harner is useful also because it is significantly more discursive than most other volumes of this sort. See also Harner’s On Compiling an Annotated Bibliography for advice on this aspect of your thesis work.

Even though its utility is limited by its most recent entries being from the mid-80s, Marcuse's work serves the researcher as a guide both to reference works and to journals and monographs. It thus performs the important bibliographic function of providing simultaneous access to both secondary and tertiary resources, in so doing helping the researcher thoroughly to design and conduct the early stages of a research project. Most of the entries are for titles relevant to English-language literatures, but the volume also covers materials for the study of literatures in other languages as well. In addition to materials on literature proper, the author includes coverage of ancillary fields, with special attention to history, the performing arts, theory, women's studies, and the profession of English. The several tables of contents and the indexes offer various levels and avenues of access to the volume. The author exhaustively annotates the main entries.