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WRT 101S - West - Controversial Issues: Find Articles

This guide will provide assistance to Writing 101s students working on their Argumentative Essay assignment.

Research Your Community

MegaSearch This link opens in a new window
Search dozens of databases and the library catalog. Find articles, books, eBooks, videos, and more. This cross-curricular research database supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Informed, differing views help learners develop criticalthinking skills and draw their own conclusions.

Top Article Databases

Controversial Issues Databases

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Original, comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues in the news.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
This cross-curricular research database supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Informed, differing views help learners develop critical thinking skills and draw their own conclusions.
Points of View Reference Center This link opens in a new window

Other Article Databases:

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
An unprecedented collection of peer-reviewed, full-text journals for academic research.
MasterFILE Premier This link opens in a new window
ProQuest News and Newspapers This link opens in a new window
"Collection of digitized news content, spanning the latest headlines and developments in contemporary politics, culture, health and technology, to historical coverage of important (and sometimes forgotten) people, places and events dating back to the 1700s." -ProQuest

Special Search Strategy

Truncation: *

The asterisk * is a common symbol used to represent any number of letters at the ends of words
Helps find singulars, plurals, and variant endings of words
Example: docu* finds documents, document, documentation, documented

Limiters:

Most databases let you limit search results. Some limiters include:
- Language
- Publication type..such as Peer-Reviewed or Scholarly Journals.
- Date of Publication

Phrases: " "

Enclose phrases in quotation marks when searching the Web or most databases
Phrase searching in individual databases may vary.
Example: "sanctuary cities"
Example: "federal government"

Keyword Searching

State Your Topic as a Question:

For example, if you are interested in finding out about how sanctuary cities help immigrants, phrase your question: "How do sanctuary cities protect immigrants?
Identify the Keywords in your question. Here they are sanctuary cities, protect* and immigrants.

Too Much Information?

If you are finding too many sources, narrow your topic by using the "and" operator.

For example: "sanctuary cities" and immigrants and protect*

Too Little Information?

You may need to broaden your topic or perhaps select a different one. Broaden your topic by linking similar words with the "or" operator.

(NEW TUTORIAL) MegaSearch: Finding Peer Reviewed Articles