First Sources

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University is a tremendously useful source for anyone conducting research. Check it out here: Online Writing Lab .


The OWL is updated regularly and includes information on citing in APA style, MLA style, and Chicago style. For E. E. L. I. students, you will focus on MLA citation style for this term; my ENG 102 students will use whatever citation style best suits your discipline. For example, you should cite a health-related paper with APA style because APA style acknowledges the date a piece of research was published and therefore ensures a source is not obsolete. In the humanities, you use MLA style because new sources don't make older sources (from the early 1990s) obsolete quite as quickly. Citing news and other current-events documents are different; we'll talk about them in class.


I haven't had a chance to look over this site yet, but I think it will help you get started looking for online information. It's called The Free Library . They've got newer sources and older ones; if you decide to use any of these sources in your papers, you will need to cite the website (the online version of the source); we'll discuss that in class.


Don't forget about Eastern's Library . The inter-library loan (ILLiad) is indispensable while you research, as are the multitudes of other online resources. We'll discuss online resources in class. If you do choose to use ILLiad to help you find sources, I suggest you do it early; it often takes a little over a week to get a source from one university to another. Digital files don't take terribly long, but books do. Look around, I'm sure you'll find something helpful.




Happy Researching,
Ben