You may need to refine your topic from a very broad concern to a narrow one, or possibly reverse. If you're looking at a broad topic, such as gun rights, consider:
As a result, you might narrow your topic with results such as:
When searching for information, you want to use current sources of information. That is especially important when you are researching literally current issues. This video explains why.
Now that you have keywords, it's time to search the databases. Have you used the databases before? If you don't have recent experience with our library's databases, then I suggest watching this introductory video.
The next video shows you how to search Issues & Controversies, which is one of the library's databases focusing on controversial issues. It provides helpful introductions to arguments on different sides of controversial issues, including social, political, and economic issues, in the United States.
After searching Issues & Controversies, I recommend exploring Opposing Viewpoints. This is another controversial issues database. Its resources include statistics, news stories, scholarly journal articles, and viewpoint arguments on a wide variety of current issues.
Most of the library's resources, including news articles, journal articles, videos, ebooks, and print books, can be searched through this single search portal. This video shows you how to use it.
You must cite your sources according to the MLA style of documentation.
This is our video that introduces MLA documentation. I urge you to watch the entire video carefully before starting to write your paper. It is much easier to cite correctly as you go along, rather than try to fix your documentation after you have written your paper.
This is our sample paper. You can model the formatting of your paper after this one. If you are unsure how to set up the formatting in Microsoft Word so that it fits the requirements for MLA formatting, you could instead download this blank Word document that has the formatting already set up for you.
This is our 2-page handout that summarizes the MLA style. It includes most of the types of sources that students commonly use.
