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ENC 1101 (N. Phillips) - Persuasive Documented Essay: Home

This is a guide for students in Professor Neal Phillip's Comp I class on West Campus. It contains resources and suggestions for researching controversial issues.

How to Use this Guide

This guide contains tips on finding information on an issue in society.

The homepage has some general information on the types of resources you may want to look for.

Use the tabs across the top for help finding specific kinds resources.

Issue Resources in Brief

The following are some different types of resources you may want to explore when working on your topic.

Background information

  • Pro/Con essays: Provide an overview of an issue including the arguments given by both sides. Available in books such as Opposing Viewpoints, At Issue and Taking Sides; also available in Library Databases.

Current Events & Reporting

  • News reports: Stories that describe how your issue is impacting the world, the nation or a community. Find news reports on television, radio, and newspapers. Find collections of news reports in Library Databases.
  • Documentary / Educational Films: Films produced for the purpose of bringing an issue to light, persuading an audience, or for educational purposes.

Points of View

  • Opinion articles: Opinion articles such as Letters to the Editor or Editorials express the writer's point of view or that of the organization they represent. Find opinion articles in newspapers and Library Databases.
  • Organizations / Interest Groups: For many controversial issues there are organizations and interest groups that work and lobby for their side of the issue. Browse articles by and about these organizations.
  • Scholarly journal articles: Expert research studies about the topic -- use these to get the scientific or expert point of view. Find scholarly journal articles in Library Databases.

West Campus Librarians

The Valencia College libraries do not welcome solicitation of resources to be added to our LibGuides. This includes but is not limited to vendors, search engine optimizers, placement of ads, products, or any other requests. Our LibGuides are carefully curated resources developed in partnership with faculty, staff, and students to support specific assignments, courses, events, and other related purposes at Valencia College. The Valencia libraries reserve the right to ignore LibGuide resource solicitations, and/or block persistent requests from groups or individuals to add or promote links in our LibGuides.