by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: December 08, 2009

All good writing is supported either by good knowledge, life experience or good research. Research is not the same for every topic, however. Some topics require source material from one source while others require inquiry into a variety of sources as the topic develops. It is up to the writer to insure that comprehensive and complete information is given, but it is also up to the writer to leave out extraneous or irrelevant information.

A warning that a topic might be a bit too much is if the writer does not have enough knowledge about the subject to write an outline or an introductory paragraph. Research will allow the writer to confirm detailed or complex information, to support a thesis or argument, or to get a better understanding of the current and updated information about a subject. Good research will help the writer get reacquainted with, or updated about a complex area that was studied a while ago. But a complete article on new and uncharted territory takes a lot of time and effort.

A good library of basic information, either in print or online is essential to good research. Using the bookmarks feature of your browser will help to build a library of websites and web pages that provide quick reference or detailed material on your favorite subjects. If the exact dates of an historical event, information about the periodic table of elements, or the basic recipe that was the source of a cooking masterpiece is needed, then there are excellent sites that have comprehensive material, and these should be in "favorites" or "bookmarks".  All of the favorite major newspapers from different regions are good to have stashed away, just for the regional and local takes on national or local events in the news.  A dictionary or thesaurus, plus a good translator, such as Yahoo Babelfish are more essentials to a good research library.

If a geographical location is the key element to an article, then the area should be researched to develop a good sense of history, demographics, geology, and whether favorite sites are still in existence, or what happened to them. Outdated travel information is no good, so links that provide updated travel advisories, discuss trends and issues in the travel industry, and that give updated information about the travel destination are essential elements of the research toolkit.

Generally, paying attention to multiple sources to determine if there is disagreement, factual conflict, or challenges to a particular take on a matter is essential. Some sources are focused on one aspect of a topic. Multiple source research will help to build a more comprehensive article, and to include important information that a single source might have left out.

It is not good to Google a serious topic, then take the first relevant source at face value. Using "advanced search" to eliminate irrelevant hits, to go straight to a particular domain, and to do safe search is the best way to go when choosing the source of your information. It makes no sense to write an article that has other peoples articles as the only source. The .edu domain will have university level work by those who have studied the latest, most through, and greatest of information on a topic.

Finally, a well written article is only supported by good research. The final product has to be well organized and should contain the organization and original ideas of the individual writer's mind in order to be an article that is chosen over other sources.  If the article is scientific or factual in nature, then it must be comprehensive and well organized enough to present the researched information in a way that can be read, understood, and retained by the reader.

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