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English 341 -- Rhetorical Principles of Expository Writing

Professor Leigh Jones

Background Reading

Gale Virtual Reference Library

A comprehensive library of reference sources. A good place to define your topic and get background information, and suggestions for more specific topics.

Opposing Viewpoints In Context

Great place to find background information on controversial topics. Choose an article on your topic and read for keywords and more specific topics you can use for your documented research paper.

Defining Your Topic

The Productive Researcher

A YouTube video on defining topics & generating keywords.

Choosing a Topic

A well produced tutorial on starting your research.


Polls and Surveys

Polling the Nations

Polling the Nations is an online database of public opinion polls containing the full text of 500,000+ questions and responses, from 14,000+ surveys, conducted from 1986 through the present in the United States and more than 100 other countries around the world.

Polls are an integral part of everyday life with results reported daily in the media. Survey information provides much of the basic underpinning for newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television news reports and speeches of public officials. When people read or hear these secondary sources they are getting information filtered through another's prism. With Polling the Nations, users have direct access to the primary information, providing a fresh perspective that can be found in no other place.