Oral/Interpersonal Communication

Use this guide to start your research in oral and interpersonal communication courses.

Researching Cultures

To research a culture, tradition or belief, your best bet is to start with a simple Google Search. Look at encyclopedia articles, like those found on Wikipedia, to get background and follow the citations for more detailed information. After you've learned some information online, try using Library Search to find specific information on your culture or belief. If all else fails, ask a librarian!

Country Reports

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.
CIA World Factbook

The World Factbook provides basic intelligence on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, environment, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
United Nations: Global Issues section

As the world’s only truly universal global organization, the United Nations has become the foremost forum to address issues that transcend national boundaries and cannot be resolved by any one country acting alone. This website offers an overview of some of these issues, and links to other resources, where you can get additional information.
International Labour Organization

Use the search box on this site to find reports and evaluations of social issues by country. Type in your country and topic.
Numbeo Cost of Living

Numbeo is the world's largest cost-of-living database and a crowdsourced global resource for quality of life data. It provides insights into the cost of living, housing price indicators, perceived crime rates, healthcare quality, transport quality, and various other key statistics.

U.S. Demographics & Language Data

Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Interactive data maps of United States demographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau from 1790-present.

U.S. Census Data
Explore U.S. census data. Quickfacts gives a nice overview of an area and the Business Builder can help you view certain demographics at local levels.
U.S. Census Bureau: Language Use
U.S. statistics on English usage and language spoken at home
Pew Research Center: Hispanic Trends
News and data on Hispanics in the U.S. from the Pew Research Center
MLA Language Map
Map of languages commonly spoken in the United States, including enrollment data for university language programs
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
National labor force statistics with demographic characteristics