Research Guides: UWP 101: Advanced Composition (Bright): General Audience Sources

General Audience Sources

How does your field use writing?

1. Books can help you identify different genres of writing in your discipline or profession.

Advanced Search: UC Davis Library Catalog
Search UC Library Search for books, journals (not articles) and other materials available online or in the library.

2. Publications from professional organizations can be great examples of how professionals in your field communicate and can help familiarize you with the types of topics they write about.

Tip: To find reputable national organizations in your discipline, search the Occupational Outlook Handbook for your profession, e.g. dentist, school counselor, data scientist. From the Summary information page, navigate to the More Info tab and browse the Contacts.

3. Search for reputable news articles and magazine articles using the tools listed below:

Access World News
Use this database to search for news articles from thousands of sources from around the U.S. and the world.
MasterFILE Premier
Includes information from over two thousand popular magazines covering topics in a wide range of disciplines.
NYTimes.com
Unlimited access to NYTimes.com and NYT Mobile apps, including Spanish and Chinese editions. Note: First time users must create a NYT account to gain access; accounts will need to be reactivated on an annual basis.
To activate access:
Step 1: Visit AccessNYT.com while connected to the UC Davis network (including VPN)
Step 2: Search for and click the listing for “University of California, Davis – Davis, CA.”
Step 3: Click “Create Account” and complete the registration fields
Here’s what you’ll get through our campus subscription:
- Access to most New York Times and International New York Times content — including news, reviews, opinion, blogs, videos and more — with no monthly limit on the number of stories you can read
- Access content on the NYT mobile app (download it from https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/sections/115003859548-Apps after creating your account)
- Email newsletters and custom alerts delivered to your inbox
- Access to nytimes.com/edu, the Times’ higher education website, including resources curated by area of study
- Historical coverage — full access to articles published from 1851 through 1922, and from 1981 to today (Note: The Times limits individual users to five articles per day from the years 1923-1980.)
- Select crosswords from the archives (the Crossword app is a separate product, but a few crosswords from the archives are available here)
U.S. Major Dailies
Current full-text of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times (including the New York Times Magazine and the New York Times Book Review), Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Economist (Current)
To activate access:
1. Visit economist.com and create an account using your UC Davis email address (youremail@ucdavis.edu).
2. You will receive an email prompting you to verify your account. Follow the steps in that email to complete the process

Evaluate Your Sources

Consider these criteria to determine if a source is reputable:

Author: Who produced the information? What can you find about the author's credentials?

Accuracy: Does the author cite references to support their thesis? If so, are the references also from scholarly, credible sources? How does this information compare to other sources you have found?

Timeframe: When was the source published? Is the information still relevant?

For more tips and guidelines:

Evaluating Resources CC-BY-NC: UC Berkeley Library
SIFT: The Four Moves CC-BY: Mike Caulfield, Washington State University Vancouver
Evaluating Digital Sources Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)