Conduct research.
Printed Page 440
To learn more about searching a database, consult Chapter 24, pp. 674–75, 677–79.
If you are analyzing a cause that others have written about, try searching for articles or books on your topic. Enter keywords or phrases related to your cause or subject into the search box of
- an all-purpose database, such as Academic OneFile (InfoTrac) or Academic Search Complete (EBSCOHost), to find relevant articles in magazines and journals;
- a database like Lexis/Nexis to find articles in newspapers;
- a search engine like Google or Yahoo! to find relevant Web sites, blogs, podcasts, and discussion lists;
- your library’s catalog or WorldCat, www.worldcat.org, to find books and other resources on your topic.
To locate numerical or statistical evidence that you could use or to draw graphs or tables, try the following sites:
-
USA.gov, the U.S. government’s official Web portal, to find information about the federal government
- Library of Congress page on State Government Information, www.loc.gov/rr/news/stategov/stategov.html; follow the links for information on state and local government
- U.S. Census Bureau, www.census.gov, especially the Quick Facts and Fact Finder pages, and the Statistical Abstracts for various years (to compare years), for demographic information
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov, especially the FastStats pages, for statistics about diseases and illnesses
- National Center for Education Statistics, nces.ed.gov, for reports, such as America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood
- Pew Research Center, www.pewresearch.org, for research data and public opinion polling data
- Rasmussen Reports, www.rasmussenreports.com, for public opinion polling data
- Gallup, www.gallup.com, for public opinion polling data
To learn more about finding government documents, consult Chapter 24, p. 679.
Bookmark or keep a record of the URLs of promising sites. If you find useful information, you may want to download or copy it to use in your essay. When they are available, download PDF files rather than HTML files, because the PDFs are more likely to include visuals, such as graphs and charts. If you copy and paste relevant information from sources into your notes, be careful to distinguish all source material from your own ideas and to record source information, so you can cite and document any sources you use, including graphics.
Another option is to conduct field research and to use personal experience. Field research, such as interviews, surveys, and direct observation, can offer statistical data and information about public opinion. Your own experience may also provide anecdotal evidence that might interest readers.