News and magazine articles are good sources to use for Rhetoric research assignments as they are often easy to read, related to current issues, and can be useful in providing evidence in support of your argument. In addition to standard articles, opinion pieces and editorials published in newspapers and magazines can be helpful in learning different viewpoints of current or controversial issues. Long-form articles, also published by newspapers and magazines, are another article type that are often particularly useful as the significant amount of research, interviews, and investigation necessary makes them very credible sources.
The library provides access to thousands of newspapers and magazines through library databases which include access to major publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, and Economist. The rest of this page outlines strategies for finding and accessing news and magazine articles as well as links to important library databases.
There are many ways for finding news and magazine articles but two methods, searching the publication's website and using library databases, often work best for Rhetoric students. Both have advantages and disadvantages but almost all students need to use library databases to access and read articles without paying extra money.
News and magazine websites are often well designed for discovering the most recently published articles as well as organizing their articles by topic, publication type (e.g. opinion pieces), and authors. Their websites are also designed to feel easy to navigate and provide basic searching functionality. The main downside to using a publication's website is that you cannot read or access many articles without paying money for a subscription which you should not do while you are a student. The ability to do research-level searching is also limited as websites often do not provide advanced searching options and they will only show you articles from that publication rather than searching across multiple news and magazine sources.
The biggest benefit to library databases is the ability to access and read any newspaper article you find without needing to pay for a subscription. Library databases are also well designed for doing research-level searching as they provide advanced searching options such as searching with multiple keywords, limiting by publication date, and filtering by subject area. Some library databases also search across multiple publications making it easier to find articles on the same topic published in different newspapers and magazines. The main downside to library databases is that they sometimes only contain the text of an article and do not include graphics, photographs, or interactive elements from the original article. Library databases may also contain other types of sources, such as scholarly articles, requiring you to use additional filters to just see news or magazine articles.
The library provides both direct access to specific news publications as well as databases that search across multiple news sources. Below are links to news sources that are often helpful for Rhetoric research assignments. Additional information for finding news sources can be found in the Finding Online Newspapers guide.
The library has access to hundreds of magazines which can be found by searching the magazine name in the library catalog search bar. Below are direct links to magazines that are often helpful when working on Rhetoric research assignments.
Reach out to Ask a Librarian if you need help finding other magazines not listed above or if you run into any access problems!