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Active Research - it’s incredibly important

Posted on February 29th, 2008.

Before sitting down to write any article, you need to do some research first. Even, if you’re an expert on the topic you’re going to write about. You don’t want your article to be inaccurate and as a result, useless. As a blogger, you want to build up a credible reputation and you can only do that by creating accurate content.

The first thing you should do is ask yourself a question. You need to know what you’re actually going to be researching. Before writing this article, I came up with this question, “How to research a topic in order to write an article about it?” This is an important first step, as you don’t want to waste time researching irrelevant topics.

Next, use the internet, books, documentaries, and even leaflets to find information on the topic of your article.

Many people stop their research at this point. However, finding the information is only half of the actual research process. The other half is a little bit more time consuming. Once you’ve found information sources, you have to read them, listen to them or watch them. Merely finding information is useless. You have to process and interpret the information that you find.

When my original search comes up with few information sources, I like to use an online keyword tool to find other words related to the topic I’m researching. For example, a keyword search for “research,” using Wordtracker’s free keyword tool brings up other related terms such as, “research methods,” and “internet research”. Using related keywords and terms, you can hopefully find more information on your chosen topic.

As you read through and process information, take notes on a file page, or in a Word document. Note down anything interesting you think would be good to write about in your article. Also, take down the source if you’re going to quote something. Reading and note taking will ensure that you learn about the topic you‘re going to be writing about. Active research is the best kind of research.

After you’ve finished your research, take a break and then come back to write. Taking a break will ensure you won’t just copy someone else’s work. You should have learnt about your topic during the research session, and so there should be little need to open up a web browser when writing your first draft.

Proper research is the key to a good article. As a blogger, you want to be authoritative, and you can only achieve that when your work is accurate. So do some proper, active research before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

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