To find literary criticism, you will need to know the correct spelling of the full name of the author you are researching. It also helps to know the author's birth and death dates.
Some writers use their middle name instead of their first name .
For women, it is sometimes helpful to know both the maiden name and the married name . If you have decided to limit your research to a specific work, you will also need to know the full title of the work. Works which have been translated from another language into English may be indexed under the original title. Finally, you will need to know the genre of the work you are researching. If you are researching a specific theme or motif in the works of an author, it helps to have some synonyms in mind for the theme you have chosen.