Speech 101: Oral Communication I - Ms. Nagano-Krier

Harbor College Library

September 22, 2009

Some topic suggestions for finding books from the library catalog and retrieving journal and magazine articles from electronic databases on your research topic of public speeches

• Immigration
• Abortion
• Hate Crime
• Free Speech
• Medicinal Marijuana
• Death Penalty

Books
The Library Catalog is the quickest way to find books that are related to a topic of your interest. After selecting a topic go to this link (www.lahc.edu/library) -- click on Library Catalog. Locate the Search box on the site’s homepage. Below the box you will see a list of the criteria used in the search: words or phrase, author, title, subject, and series. I recommend using words or phrase. Type the words you are looking for and click on the search criterion you choose.

Keyword search Examples: Freedom of Speech, the rights of animals, drug legalization, hate crime, immigration and click on words or phrase, examine the results and choose titles of books to check out.

Try doing the same search using subject for your search criterion and compare results. Also use the browse feature to guide you to the correct subject heading.

Library Databases: Searching for articles from Magazines & Journals

• Academic OneFile
  www.lahc.edu/library -- click library databases, then AcademicOneFile and search for any keyword suggested on the top of page. Repeat the same instruction for the rest of the online databases listed below.

• Britannica Online
  CQ Researcher
• GVRL
  National Newspapers
• Opposing Viewpoints
• SIRS Researcher

Search Directories:
The Librarian’s Index to the Internet (lii.org) http://lii.org/
Search Engines and Websites:
Infomine: infomine.ucr.edu

If it’s on the web, you must check the source. Is there an author? Is the author an expert in what he/she writes about? Does the author cite the sources he/she used?

Citation guides:

MLA Style Samples
APA Style Samples
Citing Articles from Library Databases in MLA style
Citing from the Gale Literacy Criticism Series

Style Guides for MLA, APA, etc.
Guide to Writing Research Papers in the MLA Style

Diana Hacker Research and Documentation

The following three sites allow you to generate a citation from basic information you fill out:

Citation Machine
KnightCite
NoodleTools