ENGL 101 - Jensen - Politcal Parties: Home

Gale eBooks is a great source for background information. Use broad search terms like those listed in the box below.

In the Gale eBooks, use broad terms:  

• Democratic Party
• Republican Party
• American Independent Party
• Green Party

In the larger databases (Gale, EBSCO, Access World News), try more specific terms:

• Republican Party platform
• Libertarian Party history​

All of these resources are free for MJC students, faculty, & staff.

Search using the Search Terms at the top of this guide, or use words more specific to your topic.

The Web is often the best place to find information on political parties outside the United States.

• Visit the website of the party you are researching.
• Try the Encyclopedia Britannica Online for overview articles on political parties. 
• Carefully evaluate sources found on the web for accuracy and bias before using them.
• Wikipedia may be used in some cases--check with your instructor. 

Finding information today is easy; it's all around you. Making sure the information you find is reliable is your challenge.

When you use Google or any social media to get your information how do you know it can be trusted? How do you know it's not biased?

You can feel pretty confident that books you get from the library and articles you find in the library's databases are reliable because someone or some group has checked all the facts and arguments the author made before publishing them. You still have to think about whether or not the book or article is current and suitable for your project but you can feel confident that it is a trustworthy source.

Make sure that each and every source you plan on using in your paper or research assignment passes the CRAAP test.

For more information on evaluating your sources, check out our CRAAP Test: Evaluate Your Sources guide.

Watch the brief video below to see how this works.

Below is a sampling of some of the eBooks available to MJC students 24/7 from anywhere.

For more titles search the library's catalog.​

If you'd like much more in-depth instruction about the process of conducting research, please check out our guides:

Your instructor should tell you which citation style they want you to use. Click on the appropriate link below to learn how to format your paper and cite your sources according to a particular style.