Opposing Viewpoints

Description

Here’s the best research tip every–Explore your ARC Library database, “Opposing Viewpoints.”

If you’re not sure what to write about for Essay 2 on the impact of our popular culture, let me give you a sample subject, Social Media. Now I want you to follow these steps to see what kinds of sources you can find on this topic:

Open your ARC Library Home Page
Click open the link called “Research Databases”
Scroll down the list of database categories until you see “Controversial Issues”
Click open the link to “Opposing Viewpoints”
In the search box, type in “social media”
Explore the vast array of sources on this topic. You’ll find academic journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, books, films, videos, and pro-con viewpoints, among other sources. One good article can lead you to other related articles and sources.
You can easily find all the sources you need in this one database. Make sure to email any useful sources to yourself so that they are in your in-box, and copy and paste the MLA citations for each (there’s a “Cite” tool to help).
While you’re in the the controversial issues section of your library, check out the equally helpful research database, ProQuest.
Here are some other research suggestions:

Essay two’s purpose is to analyze the impact of our popular culture, and there are many sources available to help you understand and analyze this impact more deeply. For that reason, Essay 2 requires 4 ARC Library sources. You want to find secondary, or opinion-based sources, and the most scholarly of all come from academic journals, as these publications contain articles by experts in a given field (say, sociology, for example) which are peer-reviewed by other experts in the same field before they can be published. Another valuable feature to academic journal articles is that they list their references of research, which you can look through and find more sources for your own research. So one good journal article can lead you to many more credible sources. From your ARC library home page, a great place to start looking for such articles is in “Research Databases,” and the “Academic Search Premier,” which houses EBSCOhost, the mothership of scholarly databases.

Along with scholarly articles, books are fantastic sources, as books go into great depth on any subject, and they also contain bibliographies of sources that you can skim for other source links. These days we only have access to ebooks from our library, but those are fine. You’re not going to read the entire book, but read the table of contents for chapter titles to find a chapter or two to focus on and discuss in your essay.

Another great source in your library is “Films on Demand” as this database houses hundreds of documentaries on many subjects. I find that I learn much by watching documentaries. You might come across the grand-dad of documentary film makers, Ken Burns, who has made films about every topic from The Civil War, to Jazz, to Baseball, to World War II, to the Vietnam War, to Country Music, and more. Morgan Spurlock is famous for “Super Size Me” about the impact on fast food marketing in general, and on McDonald’s specifically. Jean Killbourne’s documentary and TedTalk of the same name, Killing Us Softly: The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women examines the impact of advertising featuring women and girls, and it’s not pretty for its message that we will never measure up to the ridiculous beauty standards set forth by media and the fashion industry. You won’t find all these titles in “Films On Demand,” but you can find them in other places, including on YouTube.

Don’t forget that, along with your 4 secondary sources, you will also need primary examples to support your claims. If you are writing about advertising, for example, then you would want to discuss and cite some specific examples of print ads and commercials. Remember that as writers, we don’t just tell our readers what we think, we show them why with concrete evidence. Check out “Killing Us Softly” for the way Killbourne uses hundreds of print ads and some commercials to show questionable content and to support her claims. All primary examples should be listed on your Works Cited page as well.

So by Wednesday, Nov. 11, before midnight, please create a working Works Cited list for essay 2 and submit it to this assignment window. This will make sure you’re getting your research started before you start drafting your essay. Try to enjoy this part of the essay writing process–you’re following your curiosity as you explore your library resources. Don’t worry about what you’re going to write until you have found sources that inspire you.

One more tip: On your Library Home Page, you will see a box under “research databases” that’s called “Citation Help,” which contains all sorts of helpful guides for using the MLA style of citation.

Happy researching!