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A large portion of the records in the Departmental Files was created by committees, most notably the Executive Committee and review committees. Of special interest are the minutes of the Executive Committee which date from 1920 to 1984 and are almost complete. Minutes for the years 1928, 1929, and 1974/1975 are missing. The Executive Committee materials include one bound volume of meeting minutes from 1920 to 1934 and a series of unbound minutes from 1926 to 1963. Although years overlap, the bound volume should be used in conjunction with the unbound minutes because they do not always contain the same materials. Also, minutes of faculty meetings are found interfiled with the Executive Committee minutes as well as in the Faculty Meeting Minutes folders. Because the Executive Committee was not established until 1926, the minutes prior to that time are actually of faculty meetings.

The Final Reports of the Review Committees of 1962, 1972, and 1977/1978 are especially valuable because they evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the department and identify future goals. Other departmental committees which are well documented include the Freshman English Committee, the Graduate Administrative and Curriculum Committee, and the Introductory Composition Committee.

In addition to meeting minutes, the folders "Salaries", "Budget", and "Committee Assignments" are good sources of information from which to examine the administrative history of the department. Information regarding curriculum offerings and requirements can be found in such folders as "Course Syllabi and Descriptions", "Doctor of Arts in English Program", and "Freshman English Program". The "Position Requests" document new areas of instruction developed by the department and faculty vacancies in existing fields.

The Graduate Student Teaching Assistants (GSTA) folders contain fairly substantive material regarding the role and the requirements of the GSTA's and GSTA training workshop materials. The folders on the Graduate Employee Organization document the effects on the department of the 1975/76 strike of graduate students.

The records on the Dictionary Projects are substantial but generally date from after the revival of the project in the mid 1960s. For printed works on the Dictionary Projects, the researcher should consult the Bentley Historical Library Printed Works catalog under the heading Michigan. University. Middle English Dictionary.

Despite the multitude of folders regarding professional organizations in the Topical Files series, many of these contain limited materials and the department's role within a particular organization is not always well documented.