Communication

Current Topics Research

Learn about major issues from current and historical perspectives and the inner workings of the U.S. government from authoritative, accessible, and unbiased sources.

For 100 years, CQ Press has been an authority on current affairs and the U.S. government. With databases reaching back to George Washington’s election, these collections provide content to ground today’s issues in their historical contexts with platform tools to access and analyze hundreds of years of data.

Advantages of using CQ Press Library

• Learn and research with unbiased sources produced and vetted by scholars, seasoned journalists, and CQ Press editors.

• Take on research with confidence with tools that support identifying a topic, citing sources, and collecting data.
• Search rich current and historical content comprising full-text and analytical database resources.

Gather information for speeches and debates using Opposing Viewpoints. Pro/con viewpoints are presented on a variety of topics along with statistics and cited sources.

Topics include today’s hottest social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. The database helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.

In addition to the engaging, streamlined interface and media-rich topic pages, the product's collection of content and curriculum-focused tools that help students explore issues from all perspectives include:

• More than 14,000 pro/con viewpoint essays
• 5,000+ topic overviews
• More than 300 primary source documents
• 300 biographies of social activists and reformers
• More than 775 court-case overviews
• 5 million periodical articles
• Nearly 6,000 statistical tables, charts and graphs
• Nearly 70,000 images and a link to Google Image Search
• Thousands of podcasts, including weekly presidential addresses and premier NPR programs
• A national and state curriculum standards search, correlated to the content that allows educators to quickly identify material by grade and discipline"

Best Practices for Verbal Citations in Public Speaking, Speeches and Pitches

Why Cite during a speech?

• Gives credibility to your argument and shows that you are engaging in the wider conversation
• Avoids plagearism
• Gives credit where credit is due to ideas not your own

Best Practices

Include information about :

• Author
• Author Credentials (what university, institution, or business are they from?)
• Title of work, article, report, research study, etc.
• Date of work 

Use an introductory phrase to indicate you are paraphrasing or direct quoting someone. Some examples:

• According to Professor John Doe at Princeton in his 2003 research on environmental legislation....
• A 2019 report from the Department of Education indicates...
• Jane Doe, a journalist with the New York Times, explains in her 2024 article, and I quote...."direct quote"
• As Jane Doe discusses in the 2024 New York Times article [pause] "direct quote"...
• 58% percent of Americans are in favor of promoting mental health resources in K-12 schools, according to a 2020 report in the Journal of Mental Health.