Researching an article

I have spent some time doing research for personal projects I am working on, and I thought I would share with you some of my tools and resources.

It’s so simple with the internet to find information when you are researching, without even having to move at all. But although it is a very useful tool, you do have to be careful to take whet you read with a pinch of salt. You should never trust the information of just one website, without finding more evidence on the facts backed up by other sources.

Remember also that a large percentage of what you read on the internet is not verified as truth. In many cases, it will be based upon someone’s opinion, and has not been read by an editor, as would be with a published book.

As an example, I have recently spent some time researching whether or not orbs are really evidence of ghosts. The first thing I did was typed ‘orbs’ into Google, and looked at Google Images at photographs of orbs taken by lots of different people. Then I selected some of the websites relating to the images I found to find out what the story was behind them.

Of course, some of the stories were by people who believe the orbs are real, and some believe that they are fake.

But they are all just opinion, no proof either way.

So how can I find that proof? Well, with something like this, I can’t, but I can draw my own conclusions, and write my article based upon this.

If however, I was researching something non-speculative, such as the history of a building, or facts about a particular breed of dog, I could then go further in my research, and gain facts from a variety of sources. I might still use Google as a starting point, but then I would also look up sites relating to Dog Breeders, search for newspaper articles about that breed of dog and news therein, and even check my library for books and magazines about dogs. I might also talk to people who have an interest in that subject.

Some useful resources might include:

Local Publications
Libraries
Talking to people (including those you know!)
News Websites such as BBC, SkyNews, The Guardian Online.
Google Searches by Keyword
Searching for sites or companies which relate to your subject

In conclusion, when I need to research for whatever I am writing, I utilise a variety of sources to ensure that what I write is true fact, and if I can’t prove it to be fact, I leave it out.

Tereasa Easton Aug 2010.