Background Information - ENGL 112: English Composition - Voth

Finding Background Info - To Explore or Refine Topics

(Jason Goecke via Flickr with Creative Commons)

These resources provide helpful background and history, statistics, and current trends around controversial topics:

Opposing Viewpoints
Subject: Social Sciences, History, Business, Health, Law, Politics.Analysis of current social issues from different points of view. Often includes overviews of the history and controversies around a topic.

Points of View Reference Source
Subject: History, Art, Literature Full-text essays, articles, and guides that present multiple sides of an issue.
CQ Researcher
Subjects: Social & Behavioral Sciences, Health Sciences, Political Sciences, Law Enforcement Index with full-text to in-depth studies on current or controversial issues from 1991-current. Note: only 5 users at any given time.
Films on Demand
Subjects: Teacher Education, Social Sciences, Business, Political Sciences, Biological Sciences, Health Sciences, Languages, Literature & Mass Communication, Computer Science, Mathematics & Statistics, Music, Art & Design,
Theatre Arts Searchable collection of streaming videos, educational films, and video segments in the humanities & social sciences, science and math, business and health and medicine.

Room for Debate
The Room for Debate opinion pages from the New York Times provide essays around controversial topics from a range of perspectives. Access is limited to 10 articles a month.

Online Encyclopedias and Other Reference Sources

Gale Virtual Reference Library
Subjects: Business, Biological Sciences. Online access to variety of reference books from the Gale publishing family. Can search an individual title or all titles at once.
Oxford Reference Online
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias for a wide range of subject areas: Archaeology, Art, Architecture, History, Language, Linguistics, Health, Music, Literature, Philosophy, Science, and Social Science. Full-text subject reference works in a single cross-searchable resource. Note: accommodates only 1 user at any given time.
Encyclopedia of American Studies
From Johns Hopkins University - Covers the history, philosophy, arts, and cultures of the United States in relation to the world, from pre-colonial days to the present.

The Pew Research Center provides information and reports on "on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world." A great source of current statistics and analysis.

Age & Generations - The Pew Research Center has become more cautious in its approach to generation-based research, wary of over-generalizing. Data concerning Generation Z can often be found with the phrase "young adults"
Young Adults - These data reports concern recent research around a range of topics with reference to the population of young adults in the U.S.

Government Statistics:

USA.gov - Data and Statistics
Gateway to U. S. government statistics covering business & economics, the environment, family, home & community, health & nutrition, jobs & education, public safety, science & technology, travel & recreation. Type in a keyword for your topic and the word statistics.
CIA World Factbook
Provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. From the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency.