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ENG 100: English Composition I (Inoshita): Argumentative Research

Identifying Topic & Keywords

Identify your topic, narrow down your topic to keywords, and list synonyms and related terms you can use to find articles, books, websites, and more.

Often the most difficult part of writing about an argumentative paper is selecting a topic. Here are a few databases that contain information representing varying viewpoints on controversial topics:

Once you have found a topic, identify just the keywords, which you will use to find articles, books, and websites in the quests below.

Topic & keywords example: All elementary students in Hawaii should have free breakfast

Alternative keywords example:

Elementary students

Child, children, teens, teenagers, youth, adolescents, kids, keiki, primary or

intermediate or high school

Hawaii

Oahu, Honolulu, Waianae

Free breakfast

breakfast program, free lunch, nutrition, meals, food, SNAP

Finding Articles

Find articles using Leeward Library research databases 

Research databases contain articles from magazines, scholarly journals, and trade journals.

To find articles about hot topics, search our research databases that relate to arguments & issues:

If you are looking for local newspaper articles, try using ProQuest News & Newspapers. Be sure to include Hawaii as one of your search terms.

The library maintains over 130 different databases containing journals covering many topics. Here's a link to all of the library's databases:

Finding Books & eBooks

Find and evaluate a book or ebook using Primo

Primo is a tool for finding books, eBooks, and media in the library. 

Print books will have a call number. The call number tells you what the subject of the book is and where it is located in the physical library space.

EBooks are available online and will link you to a database containing books.

Primo

Search for books and other materials in the library collection, as well as articles, e‑books, and videos from the library's research databases.

Or go directly to Primo Search for more options.

Finding (good) Websites

Find a (good) website using the following links & evaluate using the CRAAP Test

Citing Sources

Create an MLA, 8th edition style Works Cited 

Formatting guidelines:

  • 1 inch margins
  • 12 pt. Font
  • Double-spaced
  • Alphabetical order
  • Hanging indent at 0.5 inch
  • Annotation on separate line after a space

Helpful links: