Search the Oxford English Dictionary
- Oxford English Dictionary (OED) This link opens in a new windowThe Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.
As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.
The OED started life more than 150 years ago. Today, the dictionary is in the process of its first major revision. Updates revise and extend the OED at regular intervals, each time subtly adjusting our image of the English language.
Discover: Find articles, books, and more...
TOPICsearch
Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
- Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowGale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is the premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration to marijuana. This cross-curricular resource supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Informed, differing views help learners develop critical-thinking skills and draw their own conclusions.
Opposing Viewpoints is a rich resource for debaters and includes viewpoints, reference articles, infographics, news, images, video, audio, and more. A category on the National Debate Topic provides quick and easy access to content on frequently studied and discussed issues. Periodical content covers current events, news and commentary, economics, environmental issues, political science, and more.
Gale eBooks
- Gale eBooks: General Reference Collection This link opens in a new windowAn award-winning, hassle-free eBook experience—anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Gale’s eBook platform provides comprehensive support from many of today’s top publishers.
Collections include titles on:
Arts, Biography, Business, Education, Environment, General Reference, History, Information and Publishing, Law, LCO, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Nation and World, Religion, SATA, Science, Social Science, Technology
Research Starters
Research Starters is a feature in Discover that provides links to citable, authoritative summary articles for thousands of popular topics. Designed to assist users with their research, this feature was developed based on extensive studies with undergraduate and graduate students.
When a user conducts a search in Discover, a Research Starter may appear at the top of the Result List. For those topics identified as most popular, Research Starters will retrieve relevant articles that link the user to related information and detailed bibliographies.
Research Starters content is curated from a variety of high quality sources, both proprietary and encyclopedic, including:
- Salem Press
- Encyclopædia Britannica
- American National Biography
View a 2:23 minute tutorial video about Research Starters.
English Literature & Languages Databases
Free Dictionaries, Thesauri
- Thesaurus.comSearch, browse, and find synonyms and antonyms.
- Visuwords™ Online Graphical DictionaryLook up words to find their associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams that look like a neural net. Learn how words associate.
- WordNetA lexical database of English where nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms. Hosted at Princeton University.
- YourDictionaryEasy to understand definitions with with synonyms, sentence examples, quotes, biographies, and more.
- Merriam-WebsterDictionary, thesaurus, and more.
EN 1311 Course Description
Rhetoric and Composition - Emphasis on the composing process, including development and control of authorial voice through pre-writing, shaping, and editing of product. Emphasis on revision for clarification, organization, and refinement of product for audience. Required of all students, regardless of major, and should be taken in the first semester.