CAS 214W - Speech Writing

Contact

Emily (Forwood) Rimland
Title: Sally W. Kalin Librarian for Learning Innovations Information Literacy Librarian and Learning Technologies Coordinator

erimland@psu.edu
or
Your Campus Librarian

Chat

Course Info

Course Name:
  CAS 214W - Speech Writing
Semester:
  Spring
Campus:
  University Park (UP)
Instructor:
   Carl Mann

Cite Your Work

KnightCite
(quick citation generator)

Citation Styles
(APA, MLA etc.)

Manage your citations
(collect, organize, format)

Introduction

The resources below will help you get started with finding sources for your speaking assignments. Use the Topics tab for specific sources for the six topics chosen for this class and the Sources tab for more general starting places to find information associated with the topic.

Librarians are available to help you find the resources you need. Please do not hesitate to contact the CAS librarian (contact info on the right side of the screen) or use our Ask Service for questions.

Topics

Here are samples of specific sources for the 6 topics chosen in this class. Try these for some ideas as well as items in the Sources tab.

Education and budget cuts
- Making College More Affordable - Outline of President Obama's ideas
- Proposed budget affects University in multiple ways - Collegian article about PA Governor Corbett's proposed budget
- CQ Researcher Report on College Debt - Is the student loan system fair?
Internet and privacy laws
- CQ Researcher Report on Online Privacy - Do consumers need better protection online?
- Electronic Frontier Foundation - white papers, cases, documents, and guides related to protecting your privacy on social networking sites
- National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) - explains the White House's strategy to better protect consumers from fraud and identity theft
Abortion
- Abortion Debates - Should states enact new restrictions? Discusses both sides of the issue which has been refueled by recent events related to health-care coverage
- Abortion - an excellent overview page of the different social, medical, & legal issues about abortion in the U.S.
- Shippensburg Univesity Vending Machine Dispenses Plan B - article from the Huffington Post about the availability of what some groups call an "abortion drug".
Immigration reform
- The Immigration Debate - Can politicians find a way to curb illegal immigration? A CQ Research report.
- Immigration Reform - A collection of articles, viewpoints, news items, videos, etc.
- Reap What You Sow - a podcast of an episode of This American Life about the new concept of self-deportation, or making life so hard on undocumented immigrants that they choose to leave the country. (Stream from web site or see transcript here.)
Alternative fuels and fuel dependency
- Oil Jiitters - A CQ Research report about the past, present, and future of oil use and production
- Alternative fuels - A CQ Research report about hydrogen fuel as well as other major alternative sources like solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal.
- PA DEP's Oil and Gas Management Site - Public resources including fact sheets, maps, and links to more info about drilling in Pennsylvania
2012 presidential election and the candidates
- A NewsBank Special Report on the 2012 Election - find articles, videos, images, maps, etc. about the campaign, candidates, and parties
- Elections 2012 Research Guide - in-depth information for investigating the political parties, campaign spending, polls, and more
- C-SPAN Election Guide - a non-partisan site to get you started
- CQ Politics - Long known for its objective reporting, CQ Politics is a great site for getting basic information on the candidates running for office

Sources

Ready for articles and other sources? Try these first

Lion Search – one single search box that searches across all library resources for books, scholarly journals, e-books, newspapers, and more!
Academic Search Complete – A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals - in other words, lots of great stuff!
CQ Researcher – provides reports on hot topics and includes an overview, pro/con, viewpoint, chronology, in each report
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center – a good source for opinions about popular topics
Gale Virtual Reference Library – The library’s version of Wikipedia! Good for a short, authoritative summary of a topic

Newspapers

Need newspaper articles?

The New York Times - search exclusively for New York Times articles using this link. Coverage goes back to 1980 and is free for Penn State users.
Access World News (Newsbank) has access to hundreds of newspapers including Pennsylvania newspapers (e.g. Centre Daily Times), plus national and international newspapers.
New York Times Historical provides the full-text of The New York Times, starting with 1851.
PressDisplay e-Image Database – Page image editions of daily newspapers from around the world
Daily Collegian Online with back issues through 1988. Check the Historical Digital Collegian Archive for issues from 1887-1987.

Specialized Sources

Need some more specialized sources?

Congressional Research Service Report – Research papers written by the Library of Congress for the use of Congress. Provide objective, non-partisan analysis of public policy issues, but written in laymen’s terms.
Global Issues in Context – Perspectives on international news and events
GREENR –Global information about the environment, energy, and natural resources
iPoll provides data from the Roper Center’s pubic opinion archives about a variety of issues.
Newspaper Photos (from AP Photo Archive) - Hundreds of thousands of news photos provided by the Associated Press, with approximately 800 added daily.
Try the United States Statistics and Data guide for a wide variety of statistical sources
More speech resources