Welcome to the Tisch Library guide for Journalism and Creative Nonfiction. This guide includes the following sections. Use the menu to explore each section.
If you don't find what you are looking for or need help navigating this guide or any of the resources it contains, don't hesitate to contact the author of this guide or Ask Us.
What is background information? You probably already use Wikipedia, which is a background source and includes lots of helpful information. But there's a lot more than Wikipedia! Background information comes from places like dictionaries and subject encyclopedias (the "pedia" in Wikipedia) . Background sources provide context and answer straightforward questions. They include definitions, statistics, and other details. You can use this type of source to:
The following resources can help you learn to gather high-quality background information.
The following resources are just a select few of data sets available through Tisch Library. For a complete list and help with datasets please visit the Social Science Data and Statistics Resources Guide.
Books in the library catalog are tagged with subject terms to help patrons find books on specific topics. Here is a list of suggested subject terms to use in JumboSearch:
And remember, you can always use these subject terms to revise or narrow your search. For example, try this type of search string to discover creative nonfiction on a specific topic: collecting AND creative nonfiction.
Tisch Library's guide to newspapers in our collection can help you to locate local, national, and international news sources, including current and historic. If you want to have a look at how journalists have covered an issue over time, explore this guide.
Books in the library catalog are tagged with subject terms to help patrons find books on specific topics. Here is a list of suggested subject terms to use in JumboSearch:
And remember, you can always use these subject terms to revise or narrow your search. For example, try this type of search string to discover journalism on a specific topic: Vietnam War AND journalism
The following online resources are useful for quick fact checking of contemporary events.
Are you interested in English prose style? Are you looking for guidance about what to do and not to do? These books have you covered!
So you've sorted out your style--now what? These books can help you with the writing and publication process.
APA Citation Style is frequently used in the social sciences and natural/physical sciences. The first style rules were published in 1929 and the American Psychological Association has produced six editions of the Publication Manual since then.
APA style uses Parenthetical In-Text Citations within the main text of your paper. The sources that you refer to are then compiled into a References List at the end of the paper.
One key feature of APA style is that it now includes DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers), unique codes that are increasingly assigned to published articles.
Chicago Citation Style is used most often in historical research, although other humanities and social science disciplines sometimes use it as well. The first edition of the Chicago Manual of Style was published in 1906 by the University of Chicago Press.
Chicago style actually offers two different options for in-text citations:
In both variations of Chicago, the Bibliography at the end of the paper should include complete citations for all of the sources you referenced in a paper, and may also include sources that you consulted but did not end up paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting in the paper's text.
MLA Citation Style is most frequently used in the humanities (literature, languages, art). The MLA Handbook was first published by the Modern Language Association in 1951.
MLA style uses Parenthetical In-Text Citations throughout your paper, with authors and page numbers. There is also a Works Cited page at the end of the paper with full citations.