Tutorial on using "Search Everything" feature which searches all library resources from a single search box.
Choosing a Topic
The two databases listed below contain lists of hundreds of speech topics that you can browse for your persuasive speech. Please contact the library if you have any questions.
Discover pro/con perspectives from authoritative voices: Opposing Viewpoints In Context is the premier online resource covering today’s hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration, to marijuana. This cross-curricular research tool supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Its informed, differing views present each side of an issue and help students develop information literacy, critical thinking skills, and the confidence to draw their own valid conclusions.
Points of View Reference Center contains 400 topics, each with an overview (objective background / description), point (argument) and counterpoint (opposing argument). Each topic features a Guide to Critical Analysis which helps the reader evaluate the controversy and enhances students’ ability to read critically, develop their own perspective on the issues, and write or debate an effective argument on the topic.
Designed for academic institutions, this database is the leading resource for scholarly research with more full-text journals and more peer-reviewed journals than any other database available. It supports high-level research in the key areas of academic study by providing journals, periodicals, reports, books, and more.
Britannica Online Academic delivers fast and easy access to high-quality, comprehensive information. The combination of the Encyclopædia Britannica and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, magazines and periodicals, and many other research tools provides the variety of reliable sources students need for research—all in one place.
Credo Reference offers over 3,000,000 reference entries from all the major academic subject areas to offer a great starting point for your research! Tons of images, audio files, videos and full text articles on any Topic you can think of, all with full citations that your teachers will applaud.