English: Persuasive Paper

Generative AI

You can use Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity, to brainstorm your topic. 
Follow your instructor's guidelines for using AI.

Broad Topic Exploration

• Tell me about AI in Society as a research topic.
• I'm writing a paper for my college English class. Can you help me brainstorm topics about barriers to college graduation?

Multiple Research Angles

• Can you recommend different research angels for this topic: barriers to college graduation faced by first-generation college students?

Refine for Clarity & Scope

You can ask whether your question is too broad, too narrow, or unclear and get help revising it.

• Is this a good college-level research question, or is it too broad: How does social media affect mental health?

Turn a Topic into a Research Question

• Can you help me turn this topic into a good research question: social media use and anxiety in adolescents?

Multiple Perspectives

If you are working on a persuasive paper or a speech, there is a temptation to focus primarily on your point of view. Try to thoroughly research the other side as well. Furthermore, the reality is rarely black and white. There are usually multiple sides and solutions to any issue. Attempt to explore several different perspectives.

Topic Exploration

Preliminary research can help you explore a topic from multiple angles, identify nuances of the dialogue, and decide how you might be able to contribute to the conversation. During pre-search, you can use various strategies to browse through available literature without reading the articles. While looking through the search results, quickly note the titles and subjects (tags) assigned to each source. Abstracts and AI-generated summaries will allow you to learn more about the source.

Example: Topic: Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) Legalization

• Multiple sides of a debate:
  • legal and ethical perspectives
  • doctors’, patients’ & family points of view
  • advocacy groups
• Legislation and legal cases:
  • U.S. states and countries that legalized MAID
  • legal cases and rulings
• Statistical data:
  • public opinion polls and survey results
  • number of MAID prescription recipients
• Terminology:
  • medical aid in dying
  • euthanasia
  • assisted suicide
  • physician-assisted death
  • death with dignity

• What is peer-review, and how do I find peer-reviewed articles? [Video: 2 min]

Journal Articles

• Research studies: experimental studies and observational studies
• Evidence synthesis: literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis

• The library's search engine [Video: 3 min]
• Google Scholar and library synchronization [Video: 3 min]
• Research platforms: open scholarly sites & library databases [Video: 4 min]