Guides: English 101: Home

Researching Controversial Issues

When you see something of interest, note the terminology that is used in the discussion. Try to isolate key concept words or key phrases to use when searching the online catalog and electronic databases.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
A complete one-stop source for information on social issues. Users have access to viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, interactive maps, videos, streaming audio, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.

From immigration to stem cells to texting-while-driving, Opposing Viewpoints in Context delivers 13,000+ pro/con views, 1,000+ court case overviews, and thousands more topic overviews, biographies and profiles.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the most current and controversial issues of the day with a new single-themed, 12,000-word report published weekly.

Locating Scholarly Articles

This database features a box you can check to limit your search to scholarly/peer-reviewed articles.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides full text coverage to nearly 9,100 journals, including over 7,900 peer-reviewed titles in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education and more. Full-text coverage dates back to 1985 and is updated daily.

Scholarly Databases

These databases contain scholarly journals in a wide variety of subjects.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Access the journal archives Arts & Sciences I, II, III, IV, VI, & VII and over 40,000 ebooks on the JSTOR platform; book chapters and journal articles are cross-searchable. JSTOR is an extensive archive of interdisciplinary journals and books, covering subject disciplines in Arts, Business & Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Religion.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to the full-text of over 300 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics covering the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies.

Researching Newspapers and Current Issues

Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®

This database is only available to current Pepperdine students, faculty, and staff.
U.S. Major Dailies (ProQuest Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
U.S. Major Dailies provides access to the five major U.S. national and regional newspapers: New York Times (1980 - present), Washington Post (1987 - present), Los Angeles Times (1985 - present), Chicago Tribune, (1985 - present), and Wall Street Journal (1984 - present).
Newspaper Source This link opens in a new window
Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full text for 40 national (U.S.) & international newspapers, including The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Times (London), Toronto Star, etc. The database also contains selected full text for more than 330 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, Daily News (New York), San Jose Mercury News, etc.

Full text television & radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, NPR, and others

NYTimes.com

Pepperdine Libraries now provide full complimentary access to NYTimes.com, New York Times mobile apps, and New York Times in Education to Pepperdine students, faculty, and staff.

Access to NYTimes.com provides:

Tools to stay informed on the latest in world and national news, business, the arts, technology, travel, opinion, science, medicine and more
Breaking news articles, blogs, videos and interactive features
The option to save articles of interest and share via email and social media
Visit this link to create a free NYTimes account. Sign up using your Pepperdine e-mail address.

Wikipedia vs. Reference Books

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written collaboratively; anyone with internet access can write and edit Wikipedia articles. Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or, if they choose to, with their real identity.

Gale Virtual Referance Library (GVRL) is a collection of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources; these trusted, authoritative reference works are available 24/7 Titles can be searched alone, by subject, or all titles can be searched together.

Whether you are researching a topic that's new to you or just need a few quick facts, reliable information can be found in reference books.

English 101

Get Help in the Writing Center

Librarian