Start Here
Read over your assignment and make sure you understand what it is you need to do. See if you can answer the following questions:
The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
If you are picking your own topic, you might get ideas from:
Check your assignment to see if there are any guidelines related to what your topic can be. Check with your instructor if you have questions about whether a certain topic is acceptable for an assignment.
You might need to learn a little bit more about your topic before you really start researching it.
Gathering some background information can help you:
*Database links open in a new tab.
What are the main ideas (or keywords) of your topic? If you have a research question, identify the main ideas (or keywords) only. Keep your search to a few keywords.
Example:
Democracy AND the Constitution
FDR AND World War II
Boston Tea Party
John F. Kennedy
Tips from Indiana University Libraries.
Debates are speeches and floor remarks that occur in the House and Senate. This can include remarks about pending legislation and proposed amendments. Since 1874, these have been published in the Congressional Record, which is issued daily when Congress is in session. At the end of a session, the daily editions are compiled, edited, and bound in volumes constituting a permanent edition. For older Congresses, debates were published in:
See also:
Debates printed in the Congressional Record are cited using volume and the page number.
See Bluebook Rule 13.5. Example:
152 Cong. Rec. H2,107 (daily ed. May 4, 2006).
If you need to cite the Bound Edition and you only have a Daily Edition citation, you can either do a full-text search for unique terms or try HeinOnline's lookup tool:
Congressional Record: Daily to Bound Locator - HeinOnline.org Search by date or Daily citation. Not comprehensive; see coverage information.
Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the U.S. Congress
The Congressional Record is a substantially verbatim account of remarks made during the proceedings of the House and Senate. It has been published by the Government Printing Office (GPO) since 1873. Before 1873, records of congressional proceedings were kept under various titles: Annals of Congress, Register of Debates and Congressional Globe.
Official Reporters and Member offices edit and add text following the proceedings, after which the text of amendments, conference reports, and some bills and resolutions are added. Other materials such as lists of added cosponsors, notices of messages from the President and the other chamber; lists of Presidential nominations; and Résumés of Congressional Activity are also included.
GPO publishes new issues of the Congressional Record daily and transmits each new issue to the Library of Congress overnight. A new issue becomes available on Congress.gov the following morning.
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. At the back of each daily issue is the "Daily Digest," which summarizes the day's floor and committee activities.
| Source | Document format | Coverage |
| FDSys | PDF or Text (Text only for 1994) | 104th Congress to present |
| THOMAS | HTML (with link to PDF from FDSys) | 101st Congress to present |
| American Memory | GIFF or TIFF images | 1st Congress to 43rd Congress |
| HeinOnline | Online |
Daily=1982-present |
Famous and Infamous Case Transcripts
The Web's largest and most visited collection of original essays, trial transcripts and exhibits, maps, images, and other materials relating to the greatest trials in world history.
Opening Statements
By: J. Alexander Tanford. (2002). The Trial Process: Law, Tactics and Ethics.
Five-minute video from Mock Trial University.
Closing Arguments
Opinion piece by Jacob A. Stein on elements that make for good, persuasive closing arguments.
Direct Examination
Cross-Examination
By: T. Pratt. (2014).
Raising Objections
Useful Link