Persuasive speeches or papers
One key with researching for persuasive assignments is that you "hear" from both sides of the argument. It's tempting to simply read only those items that support your chosen side, but that's not good research. Why? In order:
- to be fair
- to truly think critically about the topic
- to gain understanding of the opposing side
- to effectively respond to the opposing side
- to increase your "cred" with opponents (and your instructor!)
- to be sure that you really know what you believe and why!
So, how do you do that?
Here are the basics:
- Plan
- Begin your research
- Explore your topic
- Find books
- Here, you may find that your basic terms are enough, but if you find too many results, try adding "and controversies" to your search term. AND is a Boolean operator that requires the search engine to return only those results that contain all the search terms, thus narrowing it.
Here's where it gets really specific:
- go to the Database Finder page by clicking on Articles & eResources.
- choose "Social Issues" from the subject dropdown box.
- choose appropriate databases from the list provided.
- particularly useful for your research are Opposing Viewpoints In Context and SIRS Researcher.
- the home pages of both of these databases are directories. It would be wise to review how to access information provided in this manner.
