Research Guide for English 101: Finding Opinion Articles
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Prepared by Elinor Appel, NSCC Librarian
Image source: The American Spectator, March 2007 |
Periodical Databases
Periodical databases are your most direct route to finding good articles online. These databases contain thousands of current articles in publications ranging from newspapers to magazines to scholarly journals. The publications are written for a wide range of audiences and contain a variety of political standpoints, biases and levels of knowledge.
1. Accessing ProQuest
1. Select Proquest Direct (at the top of database list) from the list of periodical databases. (This link will open in a new window.)
2. Searching Editorials
Select Document Type from the dropdown menu
Then select editorial from the list given in the "browse document types" (or just type it in).
Also check the full text box, to guarantee that you find full-text articles.
3. Finding Longer Articles
To limit your results to articles of about 3 pages or more (this will vary depending on the physical size of the publication, number of pictures, etc.) , type in words(>1000).
4. Adding your topic to the search
Type in a topic that interests you. (Some ideas: abortion, the Iraq War, immigration, gun control, testing in education, global warming, etc.) Add that topic to your search and see what you find. A search for longer articles regarding the veracity of global warming would look like this:
5. Looking at your results
You can also limit you results to publication type. Click on the different tabs to see how the articles differ between Scholarly Journals, Magazines, Trade Publications and Newspapers. Think about the purpose of the publication: is it likely to present a standpoint on an issue?
Experiment with your results by adding terms, or keywords, to your search which have political or emotional significance. For instance, if you add the term "murder" to your search for opinion pieces about abortion, you will find in your results a different mix of articles than if you add a term such as "rights" or "choice."
You might even try your search without limiting your article type to editorial and see what you find . . .
6. Other databases to search:
- Academic Search Premier - another general database (scroll down to find the document type in a separate location)
- Ethnic News Watch - contains articles from ethnic, minority and native press (ProQuest)
- Alt-Press Watch - contains articles from the alternative press (ProQuest)
For more information on finding articles in periodical databases, refer to Finding Articles. This link will lead to additional information how to "talk to the database" using Boolean logic and several specific search symbols.
Internet
Refer to Searching the Internet for tips on searching the Internet effectively using Google. You will find far fewer good free articles online, but just adding the term "op-ed" or "editorial" to your search will help bring up opinion pieces on your topic. Also consider using keywords to bring up the kinds of articles you hope to find (i.e., adding terms like "emergency" or "fraud" to the search topic "global warming" will bring different sets of results).
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