Having trouble accessing government information? See the Libraries’ guide to Alternative Sources for Federal Information and Data.
COMM 113: Public Speaking: Home
argumentative resources
- CQ ResearcherThe CQ Researcher is the perfect answer for people beginning research on current topics. It covers the most current and controversial issues of the day. From Abortion to War, each issue gives you a comprehensive review of the controversies, historical background, chronology of important events, opposing views from experts on the subject, and extensive bibliographies for additional research.
- Issues and Controversies on FileContains full text articles on current topics of interest, arranged in opposing points of view. It is intended to give users a quick grasp of the essentials of more than 250 controversial news topics. It also contains chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, bibliographies and contact information.
- Pros & Cons"Mission: Promoting critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, primarily pro-con format."
primary sources/newspapers
- America's NewsAmerica's News is the most comprehensive U.S.newspaper resource available. It provides information on people, issues, and events in the local area or around the country. Updated daily, America's Newspapers offers tens of millions of current and archived full-text articles from newspapers nationwide in a single, fully searchable online database. It includes the complete electronic editions of 827 newspapers - with 75% of these sources not available in any other library database.
- News & ObserverAccess to the News & Observer via NewsBank America's News.
- New York Times Academic PassUNC Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff now have full, year-round access to The New York Times, including smartphone, tablet, and browser access, thanks to a sponsorship from the University Library. For app downloads, visit NYTimes.com/mobile.
Access DOES include NYT Cooking, but does not include e-reader editions, Premium Crosswords or The New York Times Crosswords apps. Pass users also receive access to the New York Times archives (1851-2002) which includes 5 PDF downloads from the Times Machine per day via timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser. Archive articles outside that date range are not subject to that limit. Digital access is available only during the time that our New York Times Site License is active.
To set up your account: Please consult https://guides.lib.unc.edu/nyt-academic-pass for detailed directions on setting up your account. - Nexis UniCovers general, regional, and international news, company and financial information, legal information (including law reviews, case law and legal rulings), and other topics such as biographical information. Many files are full-text.
- Washington Post (Online)Access articles for the The Washington Post in 15 years of rolling archival content to the present. Available to all UNC students, faculty, and staff.
Note: For remote access, create an individual account here, using your UNC email.
policies/policy analysis
- Google Think Tank Search EngineSearches the websites of institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, and non-governmental organizations. The list represents a mixture of partisan and non-partisan think tanks.
- National Conference of State LegislaturesFind state policies by issue area.
- ProQuest CongressionalComprehensive source of current and historical U.S. Congressional material, including bills, testimony, reports, documents, selected prints, the Congressional Record, the U.S. Code, Federal Register, and the Code of Federal Regulations.
Advanced Google searching
Try this technique when you are looking for policy or legislative information from a specific state legislature, but you don't know the bill number and/or the legislative session.
- In Google, search: "your topic" site:URL for the specific state legislature; under tools, you can select a pre-set time frame or a customized time frame
- example:
- Step 1: search "voting rights" site:ncleg.gov
- Step 2: Under tools, in the drop-down box titled any time, select: custom range
- Step 3: enter in 2017-2024
Note: You can also use this technique to eliminate Google search results from specific web addresses by putting the minus sign before site. Example: If you don't want any results from Wikipedia, you could write "voting rights" -site:en.wikipedia.org
secondary sources/scholarly articles
- Academic Search PremierFind information on academic areas of business, social sciences, humanities, general academic, general science, education and multi-cultural topics; resource provides access to major popular and scholarly journals with many full-text articles.
- PAIS IndexA bibliographic index to the literature of public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general. Includes full-text articles.
writing & citing
Writing
Citing
- ZoteroBib - can make a citation in the style of your choice with a URL or article/chapter title
- Citation Guide from UNC Libraries
- Citation Guide from Purdue OWL - citation guides for APA, MLA, and Chicago style under "suggested resources"
orcid.org/0000-0003-2533-582X