Literature Homework

Topic: World War I

All of these topics are approved. Pick one and start researching. Remember, you can change it to any of these other approved topics in the event you decide you did not like your first choice.

Click the "Research Databases…” link (scroll down on your left) to use the databases stated in the directions. Remember, absolutely no Wikipedia, no Google, Bing or Yahoo, or the like, may be used anywhere in your Outline, Visual Aid or Speech Presentation for the Informative Speech topic. Search eLibrary first, then Encyclopedia Britannica for any topic before attempting to use any other database. You may use CultureGrams for researching most place topics in addition to the previously named databases. You may use Biography Reference Bank for researching a person in addition to the first two databases. (BRB has no photos even though articles often identify photos; we do not have permission to use them, so they are “invisible.”) Sometimes Academic Search Complete has news articles and some rare photos--but on a select few topics and often without either an MLA or APA citation.  DO NOT FORGET to copy/paste the ML or APA citation from each photo and news article and check a citation source such as the below to make certain it is accurate. To fail to do so, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is plagiarism. I cannot, will not and do not accept plagiarized speech documents.

Just look on the database result webpage for the copy/paste citation location under words such as “Cite,” “Citation,” “Generate Citation,” or similar wording. It does not matter which form you use as long as you are consistent with either one or the other. I suggest you use  Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (O.W.L.) or the Dallas College Library   to make certain these citations are accurate.

REMEMBER…NO OPINION should ever be offered in an Informative Speech. Watch out for adjectives such as “talented singer,” “affordable car,” “expensive car,” “fast car,” and other opinion adjectives that cannot be proven (as opposed to factual adjectives you can prove, such as “venomous snake,” “Northern Colorado ski resort,” “African nation,” “Hollywood actress,” and such).