Subject Guide to Journalism

Back to Guides

If you need help, don't hesitate to ask at the reference desk, or contact Reference Librarians Linda Moore or Mark Maier.

Try these encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference guides to get started. Click on the link to see the call number.
1. Dictionaries:
    The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style
    Concise Oxford English Dictionary  Ref PE1628 .C68 2004
    The Writer's Digest Dictionary of Concise Writing  Ref PE1460 .F47 1996
2. General Writing Guides:
    Woe is I: the Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English
     Ref PE1112 .O28 2003
    Reading like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to      Write Them  PE1408 .P774 2006
    On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft  PS3561.I483 Z475 2000
    Write Tight: How to Keep Your Prose Sharp, Focused, and Concise   PN151 .B76 2002
3. Journalism Writing Guides:
    Writing to Deadline: The Journalist at Work  PN4775 .M84 2000
    Introduction to Professional Newswriting: Reporting for the Modern Media
     PN4783 .F56 1998
    The Associated Press Guide to News Writing  PN4783 .C283 2000
    The Art of Editing  PN4778 .B3 2000
4. Style Guides:
    MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing   Ref PN147 .G444 1998
    The Chicago Manual of Style  Ref LB2669 .U54 2003
5. Careers:
    Careers in Journalism [electronic resource]
    Careers for Writers and Others Who Have a Way with Words [electronic resource]

Moving to the next step: finding books
1. To find books in the Mossey Library, use the Mossey Library Catalog.
2. Use MeLCat to request books and audio-visual materials directly from other Michigan libraries over the web. Use OCLC World Cat to search the holdings of over 3000 libraries worldwide in a single search. You will have to use interlibrary loan to obtain copies of these books.

Continuing on: the best places to find articles
Academic OneFile:  Peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources covering the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, and literature.
Blackwell: Over 700 journals covering a wide range of subject areas, including international peer-reviewed titles, many published on behalf of scholarly and professional societies.
BookReview Digest: Reviews of current English-language fiction and nonfiction books.
BookReview Digest Plus: Full-text reviews of English-language fiction and nonfiction books since 1983.
FirstSearch: A collection of over 60 databases from OCLC.
JSTOR: This database provides full-text coverage of more than 64 major language and literature journals. The journals have been digitized from their first volume. Each year another volume of recent issues is added to the collection.
Literature Resource Center: An interdisciplinary approach to literature containing full-text articles from more than 170 literary journals, critical essays, overviews, plot summaries, and author biographies.
Michigan Newspapers: Full text newspapers from Michigan.
New York Times: Full-page images and article images from 1851 to three years before the current date. To locate articles from the past three years, click here.
Oxford Journals Online Connection: Full text of 170 journals across the disciplines of life sciences, medicine, physical sciences, humanities, social sciences and law.
Project Muse: Full text of leading scholarly journals.
Sage Journals Online: A collection of 400 full-text journals in business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology and medicine.

Link to the Herbert H. Dow Journalism Program