The resources listed herein are merely starting points. The library can provide many more resources specific to a particular topic. Be sure to ask for help online, by phone, or at your nearest Reference Desk.

The Library Catalog   

LibCat, the Libraries’ online catalog, includes the materials (books, journals, videos, documents and other materials) that Evans Library, West Campus Library, Cushing Library, and the Policy Sciences and Economics Library hold. Be aware that there are groups of materials not included in the catalog: many government documents and microform sets may not show.
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) - Some starting points for searching by subject in LibCat or any other library catalog using LCSH…

Databases (Indexes to Articles and Reviews)   

General Databases and Electronic Indexes

WilsonWeb is a collection of databases containing article citations on a variety of subjects from science to business to the social sciences and humanities. The web versions of Social Sciences Abstracts, Applied Science and Technology Abstracts, Wilson Business Abstracts and others provide citations and, at times, full-text of articles in various disciplines. Wilson includes the full-text of selected articles as well as an option to limit to peer-reviewed (scholarly) articles.

Academic Search Complete provides full-text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. Like WilsonWeb, it is another good starting point for basic research.

Web of Science is a collection of databases that indexes all subjects from 1982 to present. The entries are from Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index, thus including cited references as well as some abstracts and links to full-text electronic journals.

Specialized Databases and Electronic Indexes 

ABI/Inform Global is a business database that provides citations to journal articles and some full-text coverage.

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts abstracts literature worldwide on linguistics and language behavior for researchers and practitioners in disciplines concerned with the nature and use of language. Coverage is from 1973 to present on descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical issues in linguistics.

Literature Resource Center offers a wealth of information that includes criticism, biographies, bibliographies, work overviews and explications, web sites, periodical articles, compare and contrast pages, full-text authors' works, and reading lists. It is an invaluable electronic library for you, the student of literature.

Sociological Abstracts is a database of citations of research literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences from 1963 to present.

Communications Abstracts and CommSearch contain abstracts and selected full text of articles published in the primary professional literature of the Communication/Mass Media/Journalism fields from 1978 to present.

Education Abstracts indexes citations and selected full-text articles in the field of education back to 1982. ERIC includes articles and reports in education from 1966 to present.

Historical News Sources   

• Chicago Tribune (Historical) (1890-1985)
• Christian Science Monitor (Historical) (1908-1991)
• Dallas Morning News Historical Archive (1885-1977)
• Early American Newspapers, Series 1 (1690-1876)
• London Times Digital Archive (1785-1985)
• Los Angeles Times (Historical) (1881-1985)
• New York Times (Historical) (1851-2001)
• Wall Street Journal (Historical) (1889-1987)
• Washington Post (Historical) (1887-1988)

Journals 

There are thousands of online and print journal titles to which the Libraries have access. All electronic journals are accessible through LibCat or via the E-Resource Locator. Below is just a sampling of some of the titles available within the areas of writing, communications, rhetoric, and English studies.

Communication Research (online)
Publishes articles that explore the processes, antecedents, and consequences of communication in a broad range of societal systems. These include: (1) mass media (2) interpersonal (3) health (4) political (5) new technology (6) organization (7) intercultural (8) family.

English Studies (online)
Covers the language and literature of the English-speaking world from the Old English period to the present day.

Media Culture and Society (online)
Provides a major international forum for the presentation of research and discussion concerning the media, including the newer information and communication technologies, within their political, economic, cultural and historical contexts.

Journal of Second Language Writing (online)
Devoted to publishing theoretically grounded reports of research and discussions of central issues in second and foreign language writing and writing instruction. Some areas of interest are personal characteristics and attitudes of L2 writers, L2 writers' composing processes, features of L2 writers' texts, readers' responses to L2 writing, assessment/evaluation of L2 writing, contexts (cultural, social, political, institutional) for L2 writing, and any other topic clearly relevant to L2 writing and/or writing instruction.

Journal of Business and Technical Communication (online)
The Journal of Business and Technical Communication keeps you informed about the latest communication practices, problems and trends in both business and academic settings or sectors. This important publication covers written, oral and electronic communication in all areas of business, science and government.

Writer (online)
Published for freelance writers, editors, librarians & students. Articles on all aspects of writing, including lists of markets for manuscript sales.

Journal of Basic Writing (Evans CPD and Stacks: PE1404 .J68)

JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory (Evans CPD and Stacks: PE1404. J672)
A peer-reviewed journal publishing theoretical articles on a variety of topics related to rhetoric, writing, multiple literacies, and the politics of education.

Selected Books 

O’Hare, Frank. The Modern writer’s handbook. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000. PE1408 .O37 1999 (Evans Stacks)

Alred, Gerald J. The Business writer’s handbook. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000. HF5726 .B874 2000 (Evans Stacks)

Amberg, Jay. The Creative writing handbook. Glenview, Ill.: GoodYearBooks, 1992. PN51 .A53 1992 (Evans Stacks)

Aamidor, Abraham. Real feature writing. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1999.

Leland, Christopher T. The creative writer's style guide : rules and advice for writing fiction and creative nonfiction. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writers Digest Books, 2002. PE1408 .L41242002 (Evans Stacks)

Stepp, Carl Sessions. The magic and craft of media writing. Lincolnwood, Ill. : NTC Publishing Group, c2000. PN4775 .S69 2000

Fink, Conrad. Introduction to professional newswriting : reporting for the modern media. NY: Longman, 1998. PN4783 .F56 1998 (Evans Stacks)

Hart, Anne. Cyberscribes.1 : the new journalists. San Diego, CA: Ellipsys International Publications, c1997. Z286.E43 H375 1997 (Evans Stacks)

Sigismund Huff, Anne. Writing for scholarly publication. Thousands Oaks: Sage Publications, 1999. PN146 .H84 1999 (Evans Stacks)

Zeleznik, Julie M. Technical writing: what is it and how to do it. NY: LearningExpress, 1999.

Ramet, Adele. Creative writing: how to develop successful writing skills for fiction and non-fiction publication. Oxford How To Books, Ltd., 1999.

Seyler, Dorothy U. The Writer’s Stance: reading and writing in the disciplines. New York: Random House, 1988. PE1417 .S378 1988 (Evans Stacks)

Kennedy, Mary L. Writing in the disciplines: a reader for writers. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall, 1990. PE1417. W724 1990 (Evans Stacks)

Glatthorn, Allan A. Publish or perish--the educator's imperative : strategies for writing effectively for your profession and your school. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin Press, c2002. PN146 .G59 2002 (Evans Stacks)

Bazerman, Charles. The informed writer : using sources in the disciplines. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1992. PE1417 .B39 1992 (Evans Stacks)

Routledge’s Intertext series (all titles located in Evans Stacks):

• Language of newspapers    PE1422 .R43 1998
• Language of fiction    PN3355 .S36 1988
• Language of poetry    PE1421 . M39 1988
• Language of drama    PN1631 .S26 2001
• Language of advertising PE1422 .G63 1988
• Language and gender   P120 .S48 G63 2000

Routledge’s Interface series (all titles located in Evans Stacks):

• Discourse of advertising   P302. C625 1992
• Language, ideology, and point of view   P301.5 .P65 S56 1993
• English in speech and writing    PE1422 .H841996
• Variety in written English: texts in society: societies in text   PE1074.7 .B49 1996

O Henry and Best American Series Books:

• Prize stories. The O. Henry awards. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1919-.   PZ1 .O11 (Evans Stacks) Evans has most of this series beginning from 1945 up to 2002.
• Best American sports writing of the century. Search by title in LibCat for call numbers of individual editions (Evans Stacks)
• Best American short stories. Search by title in LibCat for call numbers of individual editions (Evans Stacks)
• Best American travel writing. Search by title in LibCat for call numbers of individual editions (Evans Stacks)

Web Site Starting Points   

Specific Writing Resources

University Writing Center Handouts (TAMU): http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/resources/
Writing help includes getting started, planning a draft, drafting, revising, grammar, writing for specific genres, and technical writing.

OWL Handouts: Complete Index by Topic (Purdue Online Writing Lab):
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index2.html
Mega-site for writing help. Handouts include general writing concerns, research and documenting sources, punctuation, capitalization and spelling, sentence construction, parts of speech, English as a second language, professional writing, and more.

Genres of Writing (Purdue Online Writing Lab): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/genre.html
A long list of tips, examples, and tutorials and guides for business and technical writing, creative and non-academic writing, and writing in special fields.

Model Documents Gallery (Bedford St. Martin’s):
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/modeldocs/
Writing for different college courses requires different formats and documentation styles. The documents in this collection show how to format writing for a variety of academic disciplines.

Writing Film Reviews (WCU Writing Center):
http://www.wcu.edu/WritingCenter/isource.asp?page=freviews.html
A quick how-to guide for writing film reviews.

General Reference Resources

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online: http://m-w.com/
Includes both a dictionary and a thesaurus search features. You can use the pronunciation guide to listen to all the words included in the dictionary.

Bartelby.com’s Reference Shelf: http://www.bartleby.com/reference/
Includes online reference resources such as thesauri, dictionaries, factbooks, encyclopedias, books of quotations, as well as online language, style, and composition resources (e.g., The Elements of Style).

MLA Style Guide Online: http://www.mla.org/style_faq
Basic FAQs about using MLA Style from the MLA web site. For quick citation help, see the Libraries’ handout called Using the MLA Format (Follow the path Library > Research Tools & Advice > Handouts & Guides > Citing Sources).

Chicago Style Guide Online: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq/cmosfaq.html
Basic assistance with various style issues. For quick citation help, see the Libraries’ handout called Using the Chicago Manual of Style Format.

Citation Styles Online: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html
Includes help with Chicago Style and MLA.

Library Handouts  

Access the TAMU Libraries' handouts below, and many more, via the following the path:

Library >  Research Support >   Research Guides

Navigating the Library and Basic Resources (Getting Started Doing Research, Basic Searching in LibCat, Finding Articles in Journals, etc.)

Evaluating Resources (Evaluating Web Sources, Critically Analyzing Information Sources, Checklist: Critical Analysis of Information Sources)

Citation Guides (Using APA, MLA, CMOS, Citing Information from the WWW, Citation Guide for Electronic Resources)

Library Assistance   

If you need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to go the Evans Reference Desk for help. They are located on the 1st floor of Evans Library. You may also contact them via phone at 845-5741 or via AskNow at http://library.tamu.edu/asknow (our Online Chat with a Librarian service).

If you want specialized help, you may schedule an appointment with me. As liaison librarian to the Writing Programs, I am happy to help you with your research topic, recommend sources, and introduce you to some of our electronic resources.