Argumentative and Persuasive Research  

BOOKS can be found in the Auraria Library using the Book Search feature.  OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS, TAKING SIDES, and YOU DECIDE are some excellent series of books on controversial topics. Add the series name to your topic to see if there is a volume for you.    

Any keyword search can be customized by adding words like “controversial” “debates” “pro and con”, or “arguments” to the topical search.

ProCon.org http://www.procon.org 

This website promotes critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a nonpartisan,primarily pro-con format.  The topics researched are up-to-the-minute and relevant to today's world.

American Rhetoric 

...is an index to and growing database of 5000+ full text, audio and video (streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two.

CQ Researcher plus Archive

and

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center  

particularly lend themselves to argumentative, pursuasive, or position papers.  CQ Researcher has a Pro/Con Button which neatly lines up the points on both sides of an argument. The online service provides articles, book chapters, newspaper clippings, interviews and television transcripts to help student researchers support their positions. CQ Researcher also has a “Suggest A Topic” feature to help would-be researchers who are stuck for ideas.  Here is a very short interactive aid to help you use this data base CQ Researcher: The Movie. 

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS are an excellent and sometimes overlooked resource for argumentative and position papers.  When members of Congressional committees convene a hearing, they call expert witnesses from both sides of an issue...sometimes three, four, or five sides of an issue.  Not only must the witnesses come to the hearing, they must testify as to their credentials.  In other words, there are no self-proclaimed "experts" here.  In addition, the exact transcripts of the experts’ words are provided so they make an excellent source for QUOTES to reinforce your paper's position.

HEARINGS in hard copy can be located in the Auraria Library using our "book search" function.  You can perform a simple keyword search using your topic and the word "hearing". For example, type "global warming hearing".  These are located in the Government Publications collection and can be checked out.  If you need help locating the document, ask at the Reference Desk or Government Publications window.

Hearings online can be found at http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov A simple search like "global warming hearing" will work.  The hearing can be viewed as a webcast or as a written transcript.

LEXIS Nexis Congressional database will also locate hearings and, in some cases, the full transcript is available. In many cases, the testimonies are available.

Newspapers are a good source of information for papers and speeches.  America's Newspapers is a good general index.  It indexes newspapers from all over the United States and provides full text of the news stories.

In addition to America's Newspapers, there are some news databases that particularly lend themselves to argumentative and pursuasive assignments.  AlterNet, Left Index and Ethnic NewsWatch are a few of these databases.  These resources cover newspapers that may depart from the majority opinions found in the Washington Post, New York Times, or other "white bread" papers.  For example, a topic like immigration might be covered very differently in an ethnic newspaper than in the Denver Post. 

"When these difficult Cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under Consideration all the Reasons pro and con are not present to the Mind at the same time... To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con.... And tho' the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision of Algebraic Quantities, yet when each is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less likely to take a rash Step..."

Benjamin Franklin
(September 19, 1772 letter to Joseph Priestley)

The journal Controversia explores the nature and function of public argument and debate. Topics include public argument theory, debate and argumentation pedagogy, and the influence of argument and debate on democratization, democratic renewal, and social change.

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