diff --git a/sgschema/schema.py b/sgschema/schema.py
index b73c405..0bf4c7f 100644
--- a/sgschema/schema.py
+++ b/sgschema/schema.py
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ def _resolve_field(self, entity_spec, field_spec, auto_prefix=True, implicit_ali
 
         return [field_spec]
 
-    def resolve_field(self, entity_type, field_spec=None, auto_prefix=True, implicit_aliases=True, strict=False):
+    def resolve_field(self, entity_type, field_spec, auto_prefix=True, implicit_aliases=True, strict=False):
 
         spec_parts = field_spec.split('.')
 
@@ -285,14 +285,27 @@ def resolve_field(self, entity_type, field_spec=None, auto_prefix=True, implicit
             resolved_fields.append(field)
         return resolved_fields
 
-    def resolve_structure(self, x, **kwargs):
+    def resolve_one_field(self, entity_type, field_spec, **kwargs):
+        res = self.resolve_field(entity_type, field_spec, **kwargs)
+        if len(res) == 1:
+            return res[0]
+        else:
+            raise ValueError('%r returned %s %s fields' % (field_spec, len(res), entity_type))
+
+    def resolve_fields(self, entity_type, field_specs, **kwargs):
+        res = []
+        for field_spec in field_specs:
+            res.extend(self.resolve_field(entity_type, field_spec, **kwargs))
+        return res
+
+    def resolve_structure(self, x, entity_type=None, **kwargs):
 
         if isinstance(x, (list, tuple)):
             return type(x)(self.resolve_structure(x, **kwargs) for x in x)
 
         elif isinstance(x, dict):
-            if 'type' in x and x['type'] in self.entities:
-                entity_type = x['type']
+            entity_type = entity_type or x.get('type')
+            if entity_type and entity_type in self.entities:
                 new_values = {}
                 for field_spec, value in x.iteritems():
                     value = self.resolve_structure(value)
diff --git a/tests/test_fields.py b/tests/test_fields.py
index 83696e0..a07908c 100644
--- a/tests/test_fields.py
+++ b/tests/test_fields.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ def setUp(self):
                     },
                     'field_tags': {
                         'y': ['attr'],
+                        'multi': ['multi_a', 'multi_b'],
                     }
                 }
             },
@@ -69,3 +70,15 @@ def test_missing(self):
         self.assertEqual(self.s.resolve_field('Entity', 'missing'), ['missing'])
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, self.s.resolve_field, 'Entity', 'missing', strict=True)
 
+    def test_one(self):
+        self.assertEqual(self.s.resolve_one_field('Entity', 'sg_type'), 'sg_type')
+        self.assertEqual(self.s.resolve_one_field('Entity', '$a'), 'attr')
+        self.assertEqual(self.s.resolve_one_field('Entity', '#x'), 'attr')
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, self.s.resolve_one_field, 'Entity', '#missing')
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, self.s.resolve_one_field, 'Entity', '#multi')
+
+    def test_many(self):
+        self.assertEqual(self.s.resolve_fields('Entity', ['sg_type', 'version', '#x', '#multi']), [
+            'sg_type', 'sg_version', 'attr', 'multi_a', 'multi_b',
+        ])
+