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English Composition 1

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Writing with Sources

Before you begin doing online research, you should read Assessing the Credibility of Web Sites and the resources linked on that page.

Online Libraries and Library Databases

The two Web sites linked below provide excellent articles from credible sources.

• ProQuest
• FirstSearch

Note: Both ProQuest and FirstSearch require access codes and passwords, which I will give you. An Abode Acrobat Reader may be needed to view some documents in these databases (click on the link above for a free download).

• IVCC's Jacobs Library
• The Library of Congress
• Internet Public Library

Online Newspapers

• Internet Public Library's Links to Online Newspapers
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Chicago Tribune
• Chicago Sun-Times

News Organizations

• National Public Radio Online
• CNN News
• ABC News
• CBS News
• MSNBC News
• PBS

Government Agencies

• World Wide Web Virtual Library: U.S. Government Information Sources

Miscellaneous Online Resources

• The Gallup Organization
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• Finding Data on the Internet: A Journalist's Guide

Exploring Controversial Issues

The pages linked below may help you decide on controversial topics you could explore.

• The University of Texas at Arlington's "Collection of Essays on Controversial Issues"
• Rochester Institute of Technology's "Controversial Issues: Pro and Con Discussions"
• Multnomah County Library's "Social Issues"

Writing Essays with Sources

The pages linked below offer information on writing persuasive essays with sources. (Some of the pages focus on writing long research papers, so they may provide more information than you need to know to write a short essay using sources.)

• Guide for Writing Research Papers
• A+ Research& Writing for High School and College Students

Internet Search Engines

Using a variety of search engines can help you locate information more effectively than using only one search engine.

An extensive list of search sites can be found at Beaucoup, which lists links to over 2500 search sites. Dogpile is an effective meta-search engine (site that search multiple search engines).

Embedded below is the search engine Google, which is one of the best search engines currently available. If you use Google from this page, just click your browser's "Back" button to return to this page. To narrow your Google search, put quotation marks around search phrases.

For helpful information on how to use search engines effectively, see How to Search the Web: A Guide to Search Tools.