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Overview: For your research essay, you will choose a current national controversy and present two disagreements within the larger debate on the issue without taking a side. You will not present your opinion at any point in this paper.
Topics: In order to find enough sources on each side, your topic needs to be one on which there is currently a great deal of disagreement.
Examples:
Research: You will need 4-6 sources. The sources should be viewpoint articles; in other words, the author should be taking a stand on something, not reporting the opinion of others. The sources should have some authority and not just be some random guy’s blog somewhere or an angry letter to an editor of a newspaper. You are to use sources that make an argument about the national controversy.
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.
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.
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.
Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is the premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration to marijuana. This cross-curricular resource supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Informed, differing views help learners develop critical-thinking skills and draw their own conclusions.
Opposing Viewpoints is a rich resource for debaters and includes viewpoints, reference articles, infographics, news, images, video, audio, and more. A category on the National Debate Topic provides quick and easy access to content on frequently studied and discussed issues. Periodical content covers current events, news and commentary, economics, environmental issues, political science, and more.
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."
