Research Guides: Lamont: Writing Assignments

The Rhetorical Analysis

Use library databases to find articles that answer these questions:

What is the speech's cultural/historical context?
What is the background of the speaker?
How does the speaker use logos, pathos, and/or ethos to persuade his/her audience to answer his/her call(s) for action?

Speeches

Hillary Rodham Clinton
"Remarks to the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session."
William Faulkner
"Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature."
Mary Fisher
"1992 Republican National Convention Address."
Jesse Jackson
"1984 Democratic National Convention Address."
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"Presidential Inaugural Address."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I Have a Dream."
Ronald Reagan
"The Space Shuttle 'Challenger' Tragedy Address."
Eleanor Roosevelt
"On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation."
Margaret Sanger
"The Children's Era."

Movie Speeches

Alphabetized List of Speeches from Movies
Use this link to view speeches from various older movies. While you do not have to choose a speech from this of movies, feel free to browse through the list to find a speech that might interest you or remind you of a speech from another movie that you would like to write about.

The Causal Argument

Choose your event, trend, situation, or phenomenon
Search initial sources to narrow/focus your topic
Find THREE different kinds of credible sources that:
- Explain why something happens/happened the way it does/did
- Explain why it is important to understand the explanation(s) for this 'effect'

Explore Topics

Gale Topic Finder
Not sure on a topic? Having trouble refining your ideas? Use the tiles in Gale's Topic Finder to refine or find a topic to start with! Articles will be shown on the right side of your screen that you can start with that align with these topics and ideas.

More Helpful Resources

Find Books
Find books on virtually any topic at the Madigan Library. We have a variety of formats are available that range from eBooks to our physical collection.
Find Articles
Use this link to find articles that will help you find a wide range of resources from many diverse topics.
Find Statistics
Use this link to find statistics on a variety of topics. Choose from a variety of opinion poll websites, including Gallup, and a list of reference books from our collection.
Find Commentary and Opinion
Use this link to find commentary and opinion resources from both sides of the political spectrum. Find information on opinion polls, nonpartisan resources, and fake news as well.
List of Databases
A-Z list of the library's databases. Filter the list by subject as well as by database type (articles, books, standards, etc.)

The Position/Proposal Argument

For this paper, you are asked to

adopt a certain philosophical position on a controversial issue.
support and/or take part in a particular proposal to solve the issue.

Complete your research for this paper by incorporating many diverse sources (including, but not limited to, scholarly journals, encyclopedia articles, statistics, and opinion pieces) into your paper.

Need Help? Ask Your Librarian

Elizabeth Waugh

Email Me

Contact:

Madigan Library - LIB138
Sunday - Wednesday 1:00 - 9:00 pm
Thursday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Librarian for the School of Engineering Technologies and the School of Business, Arts & Sciences

570.320.2400 ext. 7742

Subjects: Baking & Culinary, Business Administration, Electrical, Electronics & Computer Engineering, Engineering & Industrial Design, Hospitality, Information Technology, Marketing, Sport & Event Management

Library Assignment

Library Research Worksheet
This guided worksheet will help you with your research. Remember to save your work!

The original worksheet was created by Jessica Urick Oberlin and slightly modified for this class.

Following the Scholarly Conversation

When researching an event, trend, situation, or phenomenon, it's always beneficial to look at the present, past, and future. When you find a great article about your topic, you can:

Follow the path of the articles References to go back in time of the conversation
Follow the Cited By information to go forward in time in the scholarly conversation.

This way, you get an entire picture of the scholarly conversation. Where does your writing and argument fit in this conversation?! Use the tabs at the top to see how you follow this conversation.

scholarly_conversation

When you find a great article for your research, you can look back in time BEFORE the article was written to see what was published before that article. You do this by looking at the articles References, Works Cited, or links the article references.

Below is an example in the Proquest database:

proquest-references-example

When you find a great article for your research, you can look forward in time AFTER the article was written to see what was published after that article. You do this by looking at the articles Cited By references.

Below is an example in the Google Scholar:
google-scholar-cited-by-example