GC Library: ENGL 1301: Professor Downes

English 1301 Research Essay

Overview: Write a thesis-driven essay that argues your own position on one of the topics discussed in previous weeks. In this essay, you need to argue your own point of view about one of our topics rather than simply agree or disagree with what others have written, you will need to argue your own ideas about this topic.

Topics: Choose a topic from one of the identities/communities in the Social Identity Project. You can choose a topic not included on this list, but you must get permission from your professor first!

Examples:

Gender Constructs
Sexual Orientation
Racial Constructs
Religion/Spirituality
Ethnicity
Family Structure
National Origin
Native Language
(Dis) Ability (physical, emotional, developmental)
Socio-economic class

Research:

Three (3+) articles from the GC Library database, EBSCOhost.
One (1) digital media (such as a video from the Academic Video Online database in the GC Library.
One (1) article or ebook from Whitecaps OneSearch
One (1) article from a reputable online news source (such as the New York Times)
One (1) definition from a reputable online dictionary (such as Merriam-Webster)

Databases
eBooks

Recommended Databases for this Assignment

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database. Academic Search Complete has more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 9,810 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
If you need help with basic database searching, watch the video tutorial to learn how to create a Basic Search.
Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Academic Video Online is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary video subscription that supports the entire range of curriculum, from anthropology to zoology. It includes a variety of video material available with curricular relevance: documentaries, interviews, feature films, performances, news programs and newsreels, and demonstrations.
If you need help with basic database searching, watch the video tutorial to learn how to create a Basic Search.
African American Heritage This link opens in a new window
African American Heritage provides users a dedicated resource that not only brings together records critical to African American family research; but also connects them to a community of research experts, whose mentoring and assistance can frequently be the difference between research success and futility.
Behavioral and Mental Health Online This link opens in a new window
Behavioral and Mental Health Online provides a comprehensive, rich, and diverse collection of video and text for anyone studying or teaching in the area of mental health. Programs in counseling, social work, nursing, psychology and behavioral health will all benefit from the wide variety of content in this collection, which includes clinical mental health demonstrations, actual therapy sessions, compelling documentaries on the human condition, psychotherapy transcripts, as well client narratives and reference works.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States This link opens in a new window
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States: Challenges and Triumphs in the Pursuit of Equality is focused on Black Freedom, featuring select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history. This resource is intended is to support a wide range of students, as well as independent researchers and anyone interested in learning more about the foundation of ongoing racial injustice in the U.S. and the fights against it.
Civil Rights and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Provided free of charge by HeinOnline, the Civil Rights and Social Justice collection contains an array of primary and secondary source materials focusing on civil rights in the United States as their legal protections and definitions are expanded to cover more and more Americans.
College (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Gale In Context: College offers interdisciplinary content that reinforces the development of skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. Learners can access news content including full-text newspapers and periodicals like The Economist, The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Science, Smithsonian, and more. Empower learning with hundreds of thousands of images, videos, and audio selections that include archival film clips, broadcast video, BBC News, New York Times video, and NPR.
Contemporary Women's Issues (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Gale OneFile: Contemporary Women’s Issues offers comprehensive coverage of issues that influence women’s lives across the globe with access to current full-text and pertinent backfile content. The database covers topics including civil rights, health, education, professional development, and entrepreneurship.
Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
The Films on Demand Master Academic Collection encompasses a broad array of core academic collections, available for individual purchase as well. With a vast library comprising over 341,000 video clips, 45,000 full-length videos, and spanning more than 28,000 hours, this comprehensive package caters to diverse educational needs. Encompassing subjects such as English, World Languages, Engineering, Technology & Society, Education, Sociology, Earth Science, Criminal Justice & Law, Counseling & Social Work, Communication, and Business & Economics, it provides extensive coverage of essential academic disciplines. Additionally, this collection includes specialized areas like Art & Architecture, Psychology, Political Science, Physical Science, Philosophy & Religion, Music & Dance, Mathematics, History, Area Studies, Health & Medicine, Archival Films & Newsreels, Geography, Anthropology, and Environmental Science, ensuring a comprehensive resource for academic exploration.
Gender Studies (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Gale OneFile: Gender Studies provides balanced coverage of this significant aspect of culture and society. The database offers access to scholarly journals and magazines covering topics including gender studies, family and marital issues, and more.
News (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Gale OneFile: News is a full-text newspaper resource providing access to major U.S. regional, local, and national newspapers, as well as leading titles from around the world. It also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts.
Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Newspaper Source Plus provides a full-text digital collection of the world's major news content. It includes millions of articles from newspapers, newswires, and news magazines. In addition, it offers television and radio transcripts and ongoing daily updates from popular news sources.
New York Times This link opens in a new window
Galveston College provides complimentary access to the New York Times to current students, faculty, and staff. A GC institutional email address is required to access New York Times. Use this link to access your very own year-long subscription to The New York Times, 1851-present. Once registered, you can sign on directly to NYT via the website or app. After a year, you will re-authenticate your NYT subscription.
Popular Magazines (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Gale OneFile: Popular Magazines provides access to the most searched magazines across the OneFile products. All of the titles are selected based on actual publication searches performed by library patrons and the database includes many titles recommended by Bowker's "Magazines for Libraries."
ProCon This link opens in a new window
ProCon.org is a non-biased information source for our users. ProCon present sourced pros and cons of debatable issues, as well as a host of reference information relevant to those issues, thoroughly researched and compiled by research staff and editors.
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collectionis an essential full-text database for psychologists, counselors, researchers and students. It provides hundreds of full-text psychology journals, including many indexed in APA PsycInfo. It offers particularly strong coverage in child and adolescent psychology and counseling.
Psychology (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Gale OneFile: Psychology provides access to authoritative periodical content supporting research in all fields of psychology— abnormal, biological, cognitive, comparative, developmental, personality, quantitative, social and all areas of applied psychology. Researchers, psychologists, counselors, and behavioral scientists will discover relevant information from the thoughts, views, discoveries, and reports found in this comprehensive collection.
Race Relations Abstracts
Race Relations Abstracts is an essential resource for ethnic and racial studies, this database includes abstracting for the top academic journals, books, periodicals and newspapers related to the field
Religion and Philosophy (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Gale OneFile: Religion and Philosophy is a comprehensive collection of periodical content covering topics across a wide range of philosophies and religions. Researchers will gain valuable insight about the impact religion has had on culture throughout history, including literature, arts, and language. Updated daily, this library resource supports a broad range of topics from theological approaches to social issues.
TOPICsearch This link opens in a new window
TOPICsearch helps teachers, librarians and student researchers can use this database to explore current events, social, political and economic issues, scientific discoveries and other popular topics frequently discussed in the classroom.

Recommended eBooks for this Assignment

Below are a few examples of ebooks that could provide resources for your assignment. For additional material, you can utilize the Whitecaps OneSearch from the Library homepage.