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ENGL 137H: Rhetoric and Civic Life

 

Contact

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


   

Anne Behler

Anne Behler
Title: Information Literacy Librarian

or

Your Campus Librarian

 

Course Info

Course Name:
  ENGL 137H: Rhetoric and Civic Life
Semester:
  Fall
Campus:
  University Park (UP)
Instructor:
  

Topics and Beginning Sources

Shopping for a topic? Try these for some ideas to get started.

  • Research Ideas Ripped From the Headlines - a blog by PSU Librarians about topic ideas
  • CQ Researcher – On the left navigation bar, click on “Browse by Topic” or  “Issue Tracker” to see categories to help you brainstorm
  • American Decades - publication that coveres cultural, political, and social trends by decade--good for tracking trends and shifts. Use the drop down menu to chose a decade or search for a term.
  • Oxford English Dictionary - provides extensive definitions of words and also tracks their usage over time, including when they were first introduced into the language.

Ready for articles and other sources? Try these first:

Lion Search – the broadest academic search you can do--search the Libraries' books, journals, magainzes, newspapers, and more all at once!.

Academic Search Complete — comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database - 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 in Context — 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.

 

News Articles

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.

  • New York Times Historical provides the full text of The New York Times, starting with 1851. For example, if you search for a term in quotes and sort by oldest first you can see when the term started to appear.

    NewsBank has access to The New York Times back to 1985, plus access to many hometown Pennsylvania newspapers (e.g. Centre Daily Times), and national and international newspape

  • PressDisplay e-Image Database — Page image editions of daily newspapers from around the world.

Specialized Sources

Need some more specialized sources?

  • Pew Internet and American Life Project - a nonpartisan, nonprofit "fact tank"for issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. The Project produces reports exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life.

  • Congressional Research Service Reports — 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 layman’s terms.

  • Penn State Pulse Surveys — 11 years’ worth of data about Penn State students on many relevant issues.

  • iPOLL provides data from the Roper Center’s pubic opinion archives about a variety of issues.

  • Try the United States Statistics and Data guide for a wide variety of statistical sources.

Digital Project Resources

Re-usable/copyright-free sources

There are plenty of resources that provide access to re-usable or copyright-free materials. Consider these video, music, and image sites - many of which feature content licensed for re-use under Creative Commons:

 

Other Audio / Video Resources

 

Research Guides:

 

More help...

Policy Papers

Think Tanks and Research Organizations publish papers about virtually every public policy issue. Use these resources to delve deeper into your issues and understand various viewpoints. Some organizations provide objective and balanced treatment of issues, others may take a particular stance on an issue. Be sure to evaluate what, if any, bias an organization has before you use their resources.

  • Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports — part of the Library of Congress, CRS does research for Congress when members are studying an issue. Their reports are both scholarly and objective.

  • RAND Corporation Reports — This think tank does objective policy research, often under contract with government agencies.

  • Policy File — pulls together the policy papers from think tanks and interest groups across the political spectrum and indexes their papers. Be sure you understand the political leanings of an organization before you use their papers.