LibGuides: Dr. Barr's Really Useful Stuff for Sociology (Dale Mabry): More useful stuff

Look up current events

For your research or current-event assignments, use these newspaper resources from HCC Libraries.

Tampa Bay Times (NewsBank) Access the daily edition of the Tampa Bay Times in digital image, text only, blogs, and Web only articles. Funding source: Statewide allocation. Here is a tutorial.

The Tampa Bay Times comes out in print on Sunday and Wednesday only. You can find hard copies in the Library .

America's News (Newsbank) This database has many newspapers and news sources from the U.S. • USE: Search for a keyword, name, event, etc. in the main search bar. Or scroll down on the homepage and browse a topic. You can also choose “Hot Topics” on the right side of the page under Quick Links to browse current events. • TIPS: The A-Z Source List at the very top of the site has a comprehensive list of all newspapers and sources.

Explore the big, wide world

Discover 175 countries in this one-stop library database of national and cultural information.

Click the link below and select your country.

Use the navigation menu to delve into such topics as Culture and Society, History, Life Stages, and much more. Find statistics under Social Indicators.

Global Road Warrior (World Trade Press)

Go to the movies in Dr. B's favorite video libraries

Search your topics in these library databases of cinematic films and documentary videos.

Docuseek Docuseek streams independent, social-issue and environmental films to colleges and universities. Fundied by HCC. Here is a tutorial.
Films on Demand (Infobase Publishing) Videos covering a wide range of subjects across the spectrum of college and university curricula. Include public performance rights for use in educational settings. Funding source: Statewide allocation. Find a tutorial.
Swank Digital Campus A streaming platform for popular film, documentaries, and television shows. Faculty may request additions to the collection. Funding source: HCC Find a tutorial.
Search tips
1. Browse movies by genre on the homepage; the genre banners show up to 25 titles with a “see all” button.
2. Or, use the search bar at the top of the screen to look up a title or person. Click on a movie, then click Watch or Trailer.
More tips
Options for language and subtitles are in the vertical three-dot menu button at the bottom right corner of the player.

Get writing help

HCC Academic Success Centers (ASC) tutors can help you with your writing in-person or online. If you find you are missing the same things in your discussion posts each week, a writing tutor may be able to help you fix the problem.

Make an appointment today with an ASC writing tutor! Appointments are available online or in-person.

Help yourself

Whether you seek help from tutors (recommended) or go it alone, the following resources will help you be a better writer:

ASC Help Sheets Resources for writing, grammar, mechanics, style guides, essay - from HCC's Academic Success Centers.
Grammar Slammer A tool for correcting grammar and punctuation to ensure that you are using Standard Written English. This is basically a one-stop shot for proper writing. There is more to writing in English than just spelling and grammar. This website offers help in Style and Usage, capitalization, abbreviations, italicizing and underlining, and much more.
Grammarly A free extension available for Chrome, Safari, and FireFox browsers. Grammarly corrects your grammar and spelling, and even checks your tone and style.

Avoid plagiarism

We have all heard of plagiarism, but many students do not know what it really is. Thus, they can find themselves in trouble and accused of plagiarism without meaning to do so.

Plagiarism is not allowed in this course. Even if you copy and paste from a website this is plagiarism, unless you properly cite the materials. Some person still wrote the material and often that material is copyright-protected. For the kind of sources that you need to do most sociological research, you will need to cite your website article or journal article.

The following links will help you properly summarize, paraphrase, and cite your sources:

How to write a summary of an article
Paraphrasing Tool This tool allows you to practice paraphrasing.
Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing (Purdue OWL) Explains the differences among quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing
Avoiding Plagiarism (Purdue OWL) Tips from Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL).

Dr. Barr's Really Useful Stuff for Sociology (Dale Mabry): More useful stuff

More Dr. B's best bets for success

Newspaper articles

Country information

Video libraries

Writing help

Plagiarism prevention

Scholarly articles

Help: Libraries, tutors, tech help

Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT and beyond