Choosing a Topic and Gathering Background Information
Getting Started with College Research
Topical Databases
These databases offer overviews of different topics, including current events, controversial subjects, and argumentative and persuasive essay topics. They are particularly useful if you have not yet selected your topic, or are trying to find out whether a topic has a contentious issue. You can look through lists of topics or read a summary about a specific topic to get an understanding of it before selecting it for your paper.
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window CQ Researcher offers in-depth, unbiased coverage of political and social issues, with regular reports on a wide range of topics including: health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, the U.S. economy, crime, and civil liberties. This acclaimed and award-winning weekly publication provides a balanced view of today's most pressing social, political, and economic issues. Each weekly report covers the given topic in a non-sensationalized manner, and many reports feature a pro/con debate, highlighting both sides of the argument. Access over 700 hot topics with pros and cons for your research papers and projects.
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In Context: Global Issues This link opens in a new window Designed to support global awareness, In Context: Global Issues ties together a wealth of authoritative content that empowers students to critically analyze and understand the most important issues of the modern world. Explore issues within government, law, health, science and technology, society and culture; it contains 250 country pages and more than 400 issue pages along with 6,000 viewpoint commentaries.
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In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window Opposing Viewpoints offers material to support differing views to help develop critical thinking skills on thousands of current social topics in the forms of primary source documents, statistics, websites and multimedia. Find overviews, news, and opinions on hundreds of today's important social issues, including racism, capital punishment, global warming, and voting rights with reference sources, newspaper and magazine articles, scholarly journals, court cases, government documents, viewpoints, maps, images, audio, video and websites.
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Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window Featuring a dynamic design and a wealth of features, Issues & Controversies helps researchers understand today's crucial issues by exploring hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture. Issues and Controversies provides up-to-date, in-depth and objective information on prominent and hotly debated issues. It combines objective analysis with clear explanations of opposing points of view. Chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, bibliographies and contact information augment the balanced, accurate coverage of current and historical events.
Reference Databases
Reference databases are an excellent first stop for gathering background information once you've decided on your topic. You can use sources like these to pinpoint ideas or concepts that you'd like to explore further in your book and article searches.
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Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Credo Reference is a general knowledge database providing articles, images, charts, maps and other materials on thousands of topics. With 750+ searchable, full-text titles, Credo Reference places particular emphasis on subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks. Also included are more than 1,100 short reference videos, more than 475,000 high-resolution art images, photographs, and maps across all subject areas.
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Referencia Latina This link opens in a new window A comprehensive Spanish-language database with 49,000 encyclopedia entries; 50,000 images; 2,500 health reports; a Spanish-English dictionary and full text for over 100 reference books and dozens of general interest magazines in a broad array of subject areas. Its intuitive, theme-based Spanish-language interface is designed to make content readily accessible to non-English users with limited online research experience.Una base de datos completa en español con 49.000 entradas de enciclopedia; 50.000 imágenes; 2.500 informes de salud; un diccionario español-inglés y el texto completo de más de 100 libros de referencia y docenas de revistas de interés general en una amplia gama de áreas temáticas. Su intuitiva interfaz en español basada en temas está diseñada para hacer que el contenido sea fácilmente accesible para usuarios que no hablan inglés y tienen experiencia limitada en investigación en línea.
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Sage Reference This link opens in a new window Start your research with authoritative encyclopedias and handbooks in the social and behavioral sciences. Provides access to hundreds of carefully selected reference titles on topics across the social sciences. Content includes handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and debates.
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Very Short Introductions Online This link opens in a new window Oxford's Very Short Introductions offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects. Each volume provides provocative, balanced, and complete discussions of the central issues in a given topic, giving a readable evolution of the subject in question. This includes free access to subject related blogs and podcasts.
News Sources
To find a current issue, consider picking a trending topic from a newspaper headline. The CT State Library provides access to many local, national, and global newspapers, and through CT State Community College, you have free access to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Hartford Courant.
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Hartford Courant (1992-current) This link opens in a new window Daily newspaper from Hartford, Connecticut. Coverage: 1992 - current. The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper in Connecticut. Founded in 1764, it also is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States.
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Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window Provides cover-to-cover full text for 45 U.S. & international newspapers. The database also contains selective full text for 389 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including the New Haven Register and New London Day. It includes newswires, news magazines, television and radio transcripts, news video clips, and more. It is updated daily with the most recent news. Wire sources include the Associated Press (AP), CNN Wire, PR Wire, UPI (United Press International), and Xinhua (China). Television and radio news transcript sources include ABC News (United States), ABC (Australia), CBC (Canada), CBS News, CNBC, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, MSNBC, NPR, and PBS. View the EBSCO Search Tutorial Video
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New York Times Online Edition This link opens in a new window Requires creation of free account using campus email address. Use your free account to access popular features, such as Today's Paper, Currently Trending, Wirecutter, The Athletic, Games including The Crossword, Cooking, Recipes, The Learning Network, Opinion, Politics, The Daily (podcast), New York Times Video and TimesMachine, which provides page scans of every issue of The New York Times published between 1851 and 2002 in browsing and searching formats.
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U.S. Major Dailies This link opens in a new window U.S. Major Dailies provides access to the five most respected U.S. national and regional newspapers: The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. Search all of these newspaper titles conveniently in one search portal.
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Wall Street Journal Online Edition This link opens in a new window The Wall Street Journal, a national daily newspaper publishing news, information, commentary, and analysis with an emphasis on business and financial news. This online version includes access to Barron's Magazine, MarketWatch and the WSJ puzzles and games. It includes coverage of U.S. and world news, education, politics, technology, real estate, sports, health, and the arts. Requires creation of free account using campus email address.
Oxford English Dictionary
In addition to the meaning of each English language word, this resource also provides historical background.
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Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window The Oxford English Dictionary is the world's leading authority on the history and development of the English language since 1150. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, sometimes from as far back as the 11th century, and of the language—traced through 3.5 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts, song lyrics, and social media posts.