Library Guides: College Writing Library Guide: Argumentative Essays

Using Opposing Viewpoints

Opposing Viewpoints in Context
Comprehensive reports covering social and cultural issues. The reports include pro/con viewpoints, topic overviews, court case overviews, and profiles of federal agencies and special interest groups.

Go to Databases

The Library subscribes to numerous databases. Feel free to try them all. Here are a few go to general Interdisciplinary databases to get you started.

Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier is a multidisciplinary source for journals including peer-review full-text scholarly content.
Academic OneFile
A multidisciplinary source for peer-reviewed full-text scholarly content.
Communication & Mass Media Complete
Communication & Mass Media Complete covers CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association) and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Penn State) along with journals in communication, mass media, and other related fields of study. Coverage includes indexed and abstracted content as well as full-text.
JSTOR
JSTOR is an interdisciplinary database providing indexing, abstracts, and full-text content for scholarly articles, e-books, and a selection of historic pamphlets for primary source research. The collection is searchable by keyword, browseable by title and publisher, and can be filtered by discipline.
Loeb Classical Library
Loeb Classical Library is a collection of Greek and Latin texts with English translations. The collection is classified by language, form, genre, subject, and date.
MLA International Bibliography with Full Text
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the bibliography dates back to the 1920s. The database contains millions of citations as well as full text for 1,000 journals.
New York Times (Option 1- ProQuest)
New York Times content within the ProQuest Central database
Opposing Viewpoints in Context
Comprehensive reports covering social and cultural issues. The reports include pro/con viewpoints, topic overviews, court case overviews, and profiles of federal agencies and special interest groups.

ProQuest Central
ProQuest Central is an interdisciplinary database providing full-text access to articles from scholarly journals, newspapers, dissertations plus business information including Hoover's Company Profiles.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text
SPORTDiscus with Full Text provides full-text content from sports & sports medicine journals.

Research Worksheet

Use this Worksheet to help you get started and focus your research.

Research Worksheet-Revised Feb. 27, 2023 (Google Doc)
Keep track of what you searched, how you searched and where you searched. DOWNLOAD this document to personalize.
Research Organization Form
MAKE A COPY OF THIS GOOGLE FORM BEFORE USING.
This form will assist you in keeping track of your research and your sources. Create a new form for each source. Review the Excel Spreadsheet with all of your sources gathered in one document. Note: Sources will not be in alphabetical order. (This form was created by doctoral student, Stalina Hernandez-Feliciano, June 2025).

Research Worksheet
Use this worksheet to help you record your research strategy by listing useful terms and databases that you have used. Revised February 19, 2021
Lined Paper for Notes

What is Lateral Reading? (3.33 minute video)

When you are doing research for an argumentative essay, you will come across many different types of sources and many different viewpoints. How can you tell and evaluate sources of information?

Evaluating online sources using Lateral Reading (3.33.minute video)
Lateral Reading,” a strategy used by professional fact-checkers to investigate the reliability of online sources.
This video is part of a series created by Citizen Literacy
Citizen Literacy was created by Robert Detmering, Amber Willenborg, and Terri Holtze for University of Louisville Libraries.
Citizen Literacy
Citizen Literacy is an online toolkit that promotes the development of key information skills for democratic citizenship and features short videos, handouts, and activities that faculty across all disciplines can integrate into their courses and assignments.

Thesis Generator (The University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center)

Thesis Generator (The University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center)
Follow the steps below to formulate an argumentative thesis statement. All boxes must contain text. To learn how to write other kinds of thesis statements, please see our Writing a Thesis page.

Thesis Generator

https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/thesis-generator

This tool will help you write a thesis statement with 3 subtopics and even a counter. Fill in the necessary pieces to build a thesis statement. Use your own words to create a thesis statement.

WARNING: Carefully read the generated results of your thesis statement to make sure that it is worded correctly and makes sense for your assignment.

What is a Thesis Statement? (University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center)
A thesis statement is a sentence that states the topic and purpose of your paper. A good thesis statement will direct the structure of your essay and will allow your reader to understand the ideas you will discuss within your paper. (Includes a video)
What is the QFT? (Right Question Institute)
Developed by the Right Question Institute, the Question Formulation Technique, or QFT, is a structured method for generating and improving questions. It distills sophisticated forms of divergent, convergent, and metacognitive thinking into a deceptively simple, accessible, and reproducible technique. The QFT builds the skill of asking questions, an essential — yet often overlooked — lifelong learning skill that allows people to think critically, feel greater power and self-efficacy, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life

Useful Popular Sources

The Atlantic Monthly
Covers the important issues of the day, from public policy and social trends to arts and humanities. Also contains sections on travel, food, and contemporary fiction and poetry.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom.
Chronicle of Higher Education
Covers news and trends in higher education. Regular features include campus news, Washington news, summaries of new bills in Congress affecting colleges and universities, details of new foundation grants, and legislative surveys.
Digital Public Library of America
This site links thousands of Digital Collections on the web. Acts as both a portal to existing content and the platform for new content. Mission is to provide open access to the public and, "ensure that this critical, open intellectual landscape remains vibrant and broad in the face of increasingly restrictive digital options."
Forbes
For corporate officers and other major executives in business interested in developing management insight through review of the nation's largest corporations.
Gallup Poll
Gallup Poll has measured and tracked the public's attitudes concerning political, social, and economic issues, including sensitive or controversial subjects
The Guardian
The Guardian is a British daily newspaper.
National Review
Provides first hand reports on national, international, and cultural affairs with focus on Washington and other political hot spots.

New York Times (Option 1- ProQuest)
New York Times content within the ProQuest Central database

New York Times Historical Newspaper (1851-2017)
New York Times Historical Newspapers provides full-text access to New York Times articles dating back to 1851.
New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry.
NPR (National Public Radio)
Includes breaking national and world news. Also top stories from business, politics, health, science, technology, music, arts and culture
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor.[6] It is a nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational television programming to public television stations in the United States
Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. They conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. They do not take policy positions.
ProCon.org
Pros and cons of controversial issues. Read pro and con arguments for and against topics such as medical marijuana, euthanasia, prostitution, and more. ProCon.org was acquired by Encyclopædia Britannica in 2020.
Rolling Stone
The music lovers magazine! Rock & Roll, national affairs, feature stories, reviews, classified ads, and the music charts. Find out where your favorite group stands in the ratings
Sports Illustrated
Reports and interprets the world of sport, recreation and active leisure. It previews, analyzes and comments upon major games and events, as well as those noteworthy for character and spirit alone.
TED Talks
TED Talks are influential videos from expert speakers on education, business, science, tech and creativity, with subtitles in 100+ languages. Ideas free to stream and download.
Time Magazine
National and international news, behavior, books, business, cinema, law, education, environment, modern living, music, nation, press, religion, theater, video and world.
United Nations Global Issues
Learn about the UNs perspective on global issues. This website offers an overview of some of these global issues, and links to other resources where you can get additional information.
Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair goes beyond haute couture-exploring the relationships between style and culture in its coverage of the arts, current events, entertainment, and more
Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American business-focused, English-language international daily newspaper based in New York City
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. The paper is well known for its political reporting and is one of the few remaining American newspapers to operate foreign bureaus.
Wired
Wired is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics

ProCon.org/Encyclopaedia Britannica,

ProCon.org/Encyclopaedia Britannica,
ProCon.org provides sourced pros and cons of debatable issues, as well as a host of reference information relevant to those issues, thoroughly researched and compiled by their research staff and editors.

Open to Debate-Films on Demand

Provides 50-minute videos on contemporary topics.

(To access use your Mville log in information. The same log in that you use for Servicehub)

Open to Debate-Films on Demand
To access a video, log in with your Mville username and password. (The same information that you use to access Servicehub)

Representing Evaluation in Your Writing

Representing Evaluation in Your Writing (ADA)
Introduce your sources and use a variety of signal verbs. This handout will provide several suggestions. Revised February 10, 2021

Table 1: Signal Verbs

List of signal words-Table 2 Signal Verbs-Word Document includes complete list

College Writing Library Guide: Argumentative Essays

What is an Argumentative Essay?

What is an argumentative essay? (OWL Purdue)