ESL Persuade

ESL Academic Writing: Sources for a Persuasive Essay

This Web file accompanies the Library workshop on how to find books and/or articles in the Bunker Hill Community College Library that support your essay.

Exploring and Choosing a Topic

Select a topic you can find sufficient information to be able to form an opinion about and write on in the time frame of the assignment.

Consider these suggested Web Sites to help you decide on a topic for your persuasive essay and to find information that supports your opinion:

Hot Topics
Internet Public Library Subject Collections
Librarians' Index to the Internet
Digital Librarian

Keep in mind the topic position or opinion you selected for your persuasive essay to help focus your search for information that supports your argument.

Books

To find books to support your essay use the BHCC online catalog.

Although you can search the catalog by author or title for this assignment you probably will want to use the Subject or Keyword search options.

For example, using the Subject option you can search for the two-word subject of "gun control" and then see the topic of gun control and sub-topics listed on the catalog screen. Or, you could use the Keyword option which allows you to combine your search terms and type in "gun control and United States". This search will find only those items in the library that specifically have to do with gun control in the United States. Compared to Subject searching Keyword searching of the online catalog provides a more precise search on a topic.

Articles

Use online subscriptions to find magazine, journal, and newspaper articles for current information and/or opinions on your topic. Since most of these online subscription services offer different databases to choose from consider which database(s) is/are the most helpful to you in providing information that supports your essay. Although these databases are similar in format use the online "Help" screens to make your information access and searching more efficient and relevant to your topic.

Links to these subscription services may be found at the the BHCC Library Web file Electronic Services

From here you can access the subscription services from ON or OFF Campus. OFF Campus acess requires your BHCC ID card.

eLibrary - provides access to newspapers and magazines; also gives a reading level for each search result.
FACTS.com -- FACTS.com contains information on current and historical events, issues, and people. The database also provides statistics and visual information that may also be useful to support your opinion for your essay.
InfoTrac Web -- InfoTrac has articles from newspapers, newsmagazines, and scholarly journals. Select Expanded Academic ASAP and try the Subject search.
Massachusetts Newsstand - Electronic access to the articles from the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and more.
Points of View Reference Center - A collection of topic overviews, and analysis of issues presenting pro/con information, with links to articles from newspapers, magazines and journals.

In addition to your textbook, print titles related to writing essays are available for your use from the BHCC Library. Here are some examples:

The St. Martin's Guide to Writing
PE1408 .A94 1997
Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process
PE1408 .E39 1998
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum
REF PE1417 .B396 2000
Write Better Essays in Just 20 Minutes a Day
REF PE1471 .C47 2000

To further explore persuasive essay writing check out these Related Writing Web Sites:

Argumentative Writing -- from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University this "handout" provides useful techniques and terms for writing persuasive essays.
Persuasive, Rational Argumentation in Writing -- from the "Writer's Web" at University of Richmond (Virginia) provides a definition and explains the purposes and methods that can be used in an argument essay.
The Thesis Statement -- also from the "Writer's Web", explores the process of developing a good thesis statement.

Using the World Wide Web to find reliable information

Anyone can put in information on the Internet. Unfortunately, not all of this information is reliable. It is very important to make sure that your sources are credible. It is your responsiblility to critically analyze the information you find. Check out a great resource for Evaluating Websites from the Cornell University Library. Wesleyan University has also put together a mini-tutorial on evaluating Web sites, available on the Wesleyan library Web site at Evaluating what you Find.Four criteria to keep in mind while considering websites are:

Accuracy- Are there spelling errors or incorrect data? Is the information too generalized?
Authority- Who is the author? What are their credentials? Can they be contacted?
Currency- When was the material written? Are the links live? Has the site been updated?
Objectivity- Is more than one view presented? What is the goal of this site?

And finally, don't forget to cite what you find

It should be easy for your reader to recognize the difference between your words and the words you've quoted from other sources as support for your statements.

Use the following website: http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/works_cited

Follow the MLA format for citing from your source to clearly state where your quotes came from and make it easy for your reader to look up the original document.

Web Site questions or comments? Send E-mail to bhc@noblenet.org

Last updated November 22, 2007
Last reviewed April 9, 2007