Research Guides: English Research Guide: Other Online Sources

Onlines Sources

Recommended sites about argument and persuasion.

General Writing Resources (Purdue OWL)
"These OWL resources will help you with the writing process: pre-writing (invention), developing research questions and outlines, composing thesis statements, and proofreading. While the writing process may be different for each person and for each particular assignment, the resources contained in this section follow the general work flow of pre-writing, organizing, and revising."
National Public Radio (NPR)
"On-air and online, NPR presents fact-based, independent journalism that examines and airs diverse perspectives."
Pew Research Center
"Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research."
ProCon.org
"Our mission: promoting critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, and primarily pro-con format."
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
"TED is a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 110 languages."
WorldPublicOpinion.org
"WorldPublicOpinion.org is an international collaborative project whose aim is to give voice to public opinion around the world on international issues. As the world becomes increasingly integrated, problems have become increasingly global, pointing to a greater need for understanding between nations and for elucidating global norms. With the growth of democracy in the world, public opinion has come to play a greater role in the foreign policy process. WorldPublicOpinion.org seeks to reveal the values and views of publics in specific nations around the world as well as global patterns of world public opinion."
The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill
Handouts and resources for writing, from specific elements of a paper, to citations, types of assignments, and writing for specific fields.
Writing Commons
An open source collection of articles and resources about the writing process.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg offers over 54,000 free eBooks: Choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, especially older works for which copyright has expired.

Recommended sites about literary analysis.

ipl2 Literary Criticism
"The ipl2's Literary Criticism Collection contains critical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period. The collection is not inclusive of all the work on the web, nor does it plan to be. The sites are selected with some thought to their overall usefulness." While the ipl2 closed in 2015, the site remains available. Some links may no longer work.
The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies
"The Labyrinth provides free, organized access to resources in medieval studies. The Labyrinth’s easy-to-use links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images around the world."
Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature
Provides biographical and critical essays on a range of authors from the Medieval, Renaissance, 17th Century, and Restoration & 18th Century periods. Also includes some sources for 19th Century, Contemporary Women Writers, and Irish Literature, Mythology, Folklore, and Drama. Remember to check the authority of the authors. Many are scholars in their field, but not all. Created by Anniina Jokinen.
Modern American Poetry
"The Modern American Poetry Site is a comprehensive learning environment and scholarly forum for the study of modern and contemporary American poetry." It is edited by Cary Nelson and Bartholomew Brinkman and hosted by the Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
PAL: Perspectives in American Literature
"First published as a book (hence the site's format), this ongoing project is now available only online; it is a research and reference tool...The ten chapters represent the major literary and historical perspectives, cycles, or movements in American literature; each chapter has an Introduction, a Selected Bibliography, and a list of representative authors." Created by Dr. Paul P. Reuben, Professor Emeritus, Department of English, California State University, Stanislaus.
Representative Poetry Online
"Representative Poetry Online, edition 6.0, is a web anthology of 4,800 poems in English and French by over 700 poets spanning 1400 years."
Voices from the Gaps
"University of Minnesota professors Toni McNaron (English) and Carol Miller (American Studies and American Indian Studies) founded VG/Voices from the Gaps in 1996 to uncover, highlight, and share the works of marginalized artists, predominately women writers of color living and working in North America."
Writing in Literature (Purdue OWL)
"This handout gives a rundown of some important terms and concepts used when talking and writing about literature."
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg offers over 54,000 free eBooks: Choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, especially older works for which copyright has expired.

English-related associations and organizations.

African American Literature & Culture Society
"The African American Literature and Culture Society (AALCS) initiates and encourages critical dialogue, scholarly publications, conferences, programs, and projects devoted to the study of the African American Literature and Culture."
American Society of Journalists and Authors
"Founded in 1948, the American Society of Journalists and Authors is the nation's professional organization of independent nonfiction writers."
Asian American Writers' Workshop
"Established in 1991, AAWW is a national not-for-profit arts organization devoted to the creating, publishing, developing and disseminating of creative writing by Asian Americans–in other words, we’re the preeminent organization dedicated to the belief that Asian American stories deserve to be told."
Modern Language Association
"Founded in 1883, the Modern Language Association of America has worked for more than a century to strengthen the study and teaching of languages and literatures."
PEN America
"PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world."
Society for the Study of American Women Writers
"The Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) was established in 2000 to promote and advance the study of American women writers through research, teaching, and publication."
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
"The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is a non-profit, 501 (c)3 organization which is one of the largest existing organizations for writers and illustrators. It is the only professional organization specifically for those individuals writing and illustrating for children and young adults in the fields of children’s literature, magazines, film, television and multimedia."

Alternative search engines. Useful for locating specific types of sources.

AgEcon Search
"AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics collects, indexes, and electronically distributes full text copies of scholarly research in the broadly defined field of agricultural and applied economics including sub disciplines such as agribusiness, food security and supply, energy and natural resource economics, environmental economics, policy issues, international trade, and economic development."
CiteSeer^x
"CiteSeer^x is an evolving scientific literature digital library and search engine that has focused primarily on the literature in computer and information science."
Congress.gov
"Presented by the Library of Congress, Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information."
FDsys (Federal Digital System)
"GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government."
Google Images
Image search from Google - either text-based or reverse image.
Google News
A news aggregator
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature.
Science.gov
"Science.gov searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites to provide users with access to more than 200 million pages of authoritative federal science information including research and development results."
TinEye Reverse Image Search
Reverse image search - upload an image or provide a URL to an image's online location.
USA.gov
"USA.gov is an interagency product administered by USAGov (formerly the Federal Citizen Information Center), a division of the U.S. General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Service. Our mission is to create and organize timely, needed government information and services and make them accessible anytime, anywhere, via your channel of choice."
WolframAlpha
"Wolfram|Alpha introduces a fundamentally new way to get knowledge and answers—not by searching the web, but by doing dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods."
Want to have fun? Look what the response is to the question "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"