Excellent Background Sources

Browse Popular News Sources

Google News and Yahoo News are great because they collect current stories from a range of newspapers and other news sources.  For a more international version of this try Library PressDisplay.

You can also browse or search popular print publications online to find current articles on a range of topics.  Examples include nytimes.com, usatoday.com, and newsweek.com.  If you go through the web, you may not be able to get access to the full-text articles off-campus.  To get around this, use the library's Passkey tool.

And, of course, most news sites allow you to directly browse their content online for free (although this may be changing). Examples include the BBC, Reuters, CNN, ABC News, etc.

2 Great Print Resources for Topics

Finding a Topic

Topic, What topic?

Linked here are some suggestions on how to select a topic for your class research assignments.

Remember to narrow your topic sufficiently--if it takes you 5-7 minutes just to explain the issue your topic is too large. For example, instead of doing "affording college," try something more manageable like "Cornell's new financial aid plans in the next years in light of the economic crisis."

Also try picking something original, that hasn't been done a million times and that you are personally interested in.