HW 3/5

Magazines and Newspapers

Browse your campus bookstore, library, and the Internet for magazines devoted to news and current affairs. In the library, ask for directions to the “recent periodicals” area. To find news magazines and newspapers on the Internet, go to Magazine Directory <http://magazine-directory.com/index-s.htm> and Internet Public Library <http://www.ipl.org/div/subject>. In addition to the obvious choices such as Time and U.S. News & World Report, look for the more opinionated magazines such as Utne Reader, The New Republic, and National Review. For more coverage of issues, look for The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Science, and National Geographic.93

Lectures, Panel Discussions, Class Discussions, Conversations

Hearing in person what others have to say on an issue will help expose the important points and raise questions for research. Seek out discussion of issues you are considering for research.

Personal Observations

The best way to find an engaging issue is to look around you. Your instructor may not give you total freedom to choose an issue, but many current events and social concerns touch our daily lives. For example, the student whose paper we use as an example of researched writing found her issue when she realized the connection between something close to home that had been bothering her and the general topic area her instructor had specified for the class: global warming.

Finding an Issue on the Topic of Global Warming: A Student Example

Student Julie Ross was in a class that had been assigned the topic of global warming. To find an issue, Ross attended an on-campus screening of An Inconvenient Truth, followed by a panel discussion featuring representatives of government agencies, environmentalists, and professors of earth science. Ross