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HIS 251 - Sport in America: Home

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Welcome! This guide can help you with research in your subject area.
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The Opinion Paper

From your professor:

 

Over the course of the semester, you will write three opinion pieces, roughly 3-4 pages each (not counting bibliography). The topics for each are open, so long as they relate to sport in America. For ideas, check out the topics on the syllabus or scan sports headlines on Google News. For each piece, you need to include the following:

1. A thesis statement with a clearly written argument

2. body paragraphs with specific details and facts to support your arguments

3. a works cited page with full citations for all sources used

While the style of these papers is less formal than a research paper, you need to use published sources to support your arguments (at least two scholarly and/or primary sources per paper). Writing style/grammar will be taken into consideration for grading. Make sure that you proofread your work for spelling and grammar mistakes. Ask a friend or roommate to look it over for you and if you have concerns, don’t be afraid to use the writing center. They are a great resource!

Researching the Opinion Paper

Search Tools and Sources

Whether you already have a topic in mind or plan to find one through research, an excellent search tool for this project is ProQuest One Academic, which allows you to search for primary sources like newspaper articles and scholarly articles at the same time. 

To the right of this page you can see a feed for the latest articles by The Athletic, which is one of the most respected sports news sources from The New York TImes. The Athletic throws a paywall after you view the first couple articles. You can get around this by trying a different web browser for a couple more articles. For broader access, although you can create a free account to The New York Times through the library, the Athletic requires a separate subscription. 

Other respected sports news sources include Sports Illustrated. You can get past the paywall by accessing it through the library's EBSCO databases. 

 

Other Sources

If you'd like to find sources from a Google or other web search, evaluate them for credibility. One approach is to use the CRAAP test (see below).

In your evaluation, while it's a good idea to consider each criterion in the CRAAP test, you can focus most of your attention on the authority and qualifications of the author, the reputation of the publication, and the content and tone of the article.   

Padlet

Visit your padlet for the research workshop: https://padlet.com/salvelibrarian/HIS251_2024

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