RESOURCES: ComS 168 Approaches to Rhetorical Criticism
Free on-line assistance for research,  writing, outlining, and documenting sources.  Make use of these links!
Research
Analytical
Writing


Research Resources

Index to Journals in Communication Studies via Communication Institute for On-Line Scholarship (CIOS)
http://www.cios.org/www/afjourn.htm

Use this index to find titles of relevant scholarly articles in communication studies journals that are
related to the critical study you are conducting.  Make sure you print entire citations so that you know the
author/s, title, and journal title.  Copy and paste your citations so you have something like this:

Lewis, William F. (1987). Telling America's story:  Narrative
     form and the Reagan presidency.  Quarterly Journal of Speech.
     73, (3, August), 280-302.

To find out if our library has this article, using Eureka, do a title search using the title of the journal, not the article.  So, to find out if the library has Lewis' essay, search for Quarterly Journal of Speech, then look on the screen to see if the library has volume 73.  If so, the article will be in that volume.

CSUS On-line Databases
http://www.lib.csus.edu/databases

Which databases you use will depend on the texts you are stuyding.  To get started, you may want to try:
EBSCOhost Academic Search, Infotrac: Expanded Academic, or Lexis-Nexis: Academic Universe.



Analytical Resources

Dictionary of Socio-Rhetorical Terms
http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/RELIGION/faculty/robbins/SRI/defns/index.html
This dictionary has its strengths and weaknesses.  As a resource to help you get a quick understanding of quite a few rhetorical concepts in an easy-to-access format, this one is quite good.  However, the dictionary is designed specifically for those in religious studies, so the examples are almost solely biblical.  That limitation makes it hard to understand the concept at work in secular and particularly mediated contexts.  Nevertheless, it is a good place to start.

A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/Harris/rhetform.html#top
Robert Harris, Professor of English at Vanguard University of Southern California in Costa Mesa, California
This book (Glossary) contains definitions and examples of more than sixty traditional rhetorical devices in a searchable format; the handbook of literary terms is similar in nature and scope.

Symbols.com
http://www.symbols.com/graphicsearch.html
This unique site allows you to search for specific symbols you may run across in texts you are analyzing.  This URL
links you directly to the graphic search profile.  For other options for searching the database, check the matrix in the
upper right part of the screen.  The database is quite large, but, of course, the universe of symbols is larger.  Therefore,
you may need to do some "creative browsing"  to find what you are looking for.  Nevertheless, it is endlessly fascinating.
Have fun!

"Silva Rhetoricae"
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm
This online rhetoric, provided by Dr. Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University, is a guide to the terms
of classical and renaissance rhetoric. This site is intended to help beginners, as well as experts, make sense of
rhetoric, both on the small scale (definitions and examples of specific terms) and on the large scale (the purposes
of rhetoric, the patterns into which it has fallen historically as it has been taught and practiced for 2000+ years).

"A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples"
http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/rhetoric.html

"Stephen's Guide to Logical Fallacies"
http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/
Fallacies are described in short paragraphs; lots of examples provided.
I suggest you sign-in so you can make use of the resources available within the site such as the search engine.

American Communication Journal (online)
http://acjournal.org/holdings/
The American Communication Journal is a completely online, blind-reviewed publication, dedicated to the conscientious analysis and criticism of significant communicative artifacts.  A publication of the American Communication Association.



Writing Resources

On-line Help for Writing Academic Papers
http://webster.commnet.edu/mla.htm
This site is extremely thorough, and easy to navigate. Use this site as an on-line MLA manual.

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm
A part of the webster.commnet site above, this portion is specifically devoted to technical concerns
of appropriate, and precise writing.  It provides help at the sentence, paragraph and essay levels of writing.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index2.html
This is an extensive set of handouts explaining everything from how to use a comma to how to write an essay.
The listing is thorough and easy to use.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/
Scroll to the bottom of the page to "enter."  You will then find an alphabetical list of common writing
errors explained in brief notes.  Easy to use.



Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html



Word Processing and Electronic Communication (email and web access):
http://www.csus.edu/uccs/labs/labhours/labhours.htm
For open lab hours and their locations on campus.