Writing Homework Help

Introduction

Think of a time you watched a panel debate regarding an issue on a primetime news program. Have you ever thought about the types of sources or evidence that worked to inform the different perspectives of the various panelists as they formulated their particular stances?

Individual opinions are formed from our various experiences. As you work to be thorough in investigating all sides of a topic you are researching, you will work to understand the various sides and perspectives of the topic you are researching. In this class we want you to understand that various types of sources will garner varying perspectives from popular opinions to more scholarly interpretations. All these views are helpful as they help clarify the complexity of the issue(s) you are researching.

The point of this discussion is to explore various types of sources as you research your theme and develop a preliminary topic proposal and bibliography.

Part 1: Initial Post

Research

1. As you develop your topic chosen in Module 2, you will find that choice of theme will inform your research for the rest of the assignments and discussions in this class.
2. Access the Library Course Guide (Links to an external site.) for ENG102. This guide is also linked in the Modules, “Course Resources” area of this course.
3. It might be useful for you to watch a few of the “How to Videos” contained in this guide related to the research process.
4. Try to use the “Search All Library Databases” search box found at the top of the Library Course Guide to search for professionally published resources. This is the same search box at the top of the library homepage (Links to an external site.).
   • For this discussion you will also need to search the internet for some sources, but please use the library databases for as many as possible.
5. Your goal is to find a wide variety of perspectives on your topic. For this discussion, you should find and read the following:
   • 2 scholarly (peer reviewed) articles (A scholarly article is one that is printed in a journal intended for a specific, expert audience; one of these articles should come from a peer-reviewed journal.)
   • 1 book. There are some suggested books on your topics that you have full access to, that are linked in the Library Course Guide. (You may skim the book, finding the most important ideas presented.)
   • 1 popular magazine article. (A popular magazine article is one that is printed in a periodical intended for a general audience, such as Time, Newsweek, and National Geographic) This video (Links to an external site.) will show you how to use the library’s database search to find only popular magazine articles.
   • 1 or more international news sources (BBC (Links to an external site.), Al Jazeera (Links to an external site.), Univision (Links to an external site.), Sohu News (Links to an external site.))
   • 1 web source
   • 1 non-traditional source (consider podcasts, films, TedTalks, etc.)

Think

Consider the varying perspectives and the voices inherent in the writing. Does one voice seem more credible than the others. Be sure to address this as you move forward so you have a broad understanding of your topic.

Write

This is a small-group discussion forum. Continue working in your assigned group as based on the theme you chose.

For your initial post, list the sources you researched and chose for your post and use the following format for each source:

1. Title
2. Author(s)
3. Title and type of source
4. Dates of publication
5. As you write your post consider the following:
   • What is the rhetorical situation as related to the intended audience and purpose?
   • Note how the source adds to helping you better understand your research topic.
   • Note the value of the periodical or source discuss the credibility of the source.