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Need research tools for article writing...

by NEFTALI
13 replies
I'm in the process of hiring a few article writers here on the forum, but obviously I understand the value of creating your own original articles and ebooks. Other than becoming creative with Google searches and use of keywords are there other utilities people are using to help filter out the noise and find (as best as possible) sources of information that they are researching?

Yes, I have a done a few searches here within this forum, but this place is not much smaller than Google in my opinion so I apologize if this has been asked a dozen times

Any suggestions would help

NEF
#article #research #tools #writing
  • Profile picture of the author Gail_Curran
    You could always pay a visit to your local library. I do all my research offline.
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  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    NEF,

    I tend to stay away from places I feel lots of other people are
    using. Of course it depends on what you're researching, but a lot
    times I'll look in professional publication directories. Google Scholar
    is a place I've used a lot, plus it directs me to other similar sites.

    It seems to work well for my needs.


    Ken
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  • Profile picture of the author ArticlesThatRock
    Law review articles are a great source of stories. The text of the articles contains valuable info, and the footnotes point to many other stories. If you read about the top 10 Supreme Court cases, you can get a good idea of the history of the USA.

    If you're interested in learning why the USA became a rich country, I recommend researching the Ogden v. Gibbons case regarding the steamboat war between NY and NJ, and the recent biography of the major player in the controversy, Cornelius Vanderbilt, The First Tycoon. Another entertaining chronicle is Privilege and Creative Destruction: The Charles River Bridge Case.

    I concur with the others: if you want something fresh, sometimes it's better to sit and think with something long such as a book. The poor quality of computer screens encourages us to quickly move from one thing to another.
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    • Profile picture of the author laurenceh
      I am also a fan off doing as much research offline as possible as long as I know the sources are reliable.

      If researching online I try to go to the top official source of information within the niche, normally in the form of a government site, or a site written by an official authority (nhs.co.uk for example in the UK).

      What I would definitely wish people would not do is go to sites like Ezine to do research. Most of it is just copied from other marketers who may not have done proper research.

      I really feel that as writers, or people who produce web content, we should be responsible for the quality of information we put in front of the world. We can clear up some of the rubbish that's out there with better researched, better thought out information.

      It's great that you are going about writing your content with proper research in mind.
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      • Profile picture of the author NEFTALI
        Library?! whats that? Just kidding, actually a local university near here is the size of a small mall (huge) but when I walked in there last year I saw an entire floor filled with COMPUTERS! Kinda of funny when you think about it.

        Sure I understand what everyone is saying about conducting info gathering OFFLINE (perhaps real world sources) and being wary of just reading other marketers/ezine articles as sources because the same information gets spun so many ways it starts to lose it's value.

        But,

        living in a world where information is constantly being updated I think there are great sources out there on the grid waiting to be discovered. Example, I want to write up an article on trends in becoming a happy, healthy vegetarian there have to be real, sincere sites and blogs dedicated to individuals on that quest and only write about their efforts in that area. I feel from there some great tid bits and insights from this unique culture can be studied and then in turn help me write a more insightful and candid article dealing with being a vegetarian.

        Certainly being that person and living that life is the best form of educating oneself on a specific topic...but I need to make a living here :rolleyes: and hopefully develop real and fresh content on a selected topic. And, as mentioned by everyone with my poor search skills I'm trying to avoid common articles that are not particularly unique, but just successfully marketed on the internet. I know, when I Google something I'll just read from page 100 and backwards! So then I can avoid all of the successful marketed sites and only come across badly designed web sites with real information....ouch, on second thought... might hurt my eyes
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  • Profile picture of the author christopherNV
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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      Here are some excellent sites for research that I use on a regular basis:

      http://www.refdesk.com/

      http://infomine.ucr.edu/

      http://www.usa.gov/

      http://www.completeplanet.com

      Just tell your writers that they are not allowed to use article directories or Wikipedia as sources. If in doubt, ask them to list their sources.

      I'm all for the library as a researcher's dream but there is just as much misinformation in books as there is on the web. You still have to know how to determine the credibility of the source.

      Tina
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      • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
        I also recommend doing research offline especially if you're writing in a specialty field.

        I'm not inferring that you can't get good information on the net, just be sure to check your sources as Tina says, and it doesn't hurt to compare and double check the information you gathered on-line with off line references.

        This is vitally important if you're writing on a subject that you don't have a lot of personal knowledge and/or experience in.

        Hope this helps!

        Terra
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      • Profile picture of the author NEFTALI
        Great Tina, thanks for suggesting some online reference sites. That's what I was looking for.

        NEF
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  • Profile picture of the author ArticleDirectory4Profits
    also try wikihow.com

    wikipedia.com
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  • Profile picture of the author addictiod
    Try Wikipedia and offline research(that means a library).
    These two things are very useful for me when i must choose a niche (or for other things).
    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Peggy Baron
    I like to use Elmer Hurlstone's (and Tom's) research tool, IMRPT aka Internet Marketing Research Power Tool for online research. It's pretty nifty.

    Peggy
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  • Profile picture of the author good2go4
    Hi there, living in a rural area in NZ I have had to rely on the internet for my research for more than ten years. I found it was handy to have a paid subscription on a site like Questia or some other online library because there I could search for everything from books, through to journal articles and also magazines and newspapers. I also use government and university sites for a lot of scientific, legal and business topics and try and steer away from Wikipedia (unless you can see the information has been well sourced). Google Scholar, already mentioned by another warrior on this thread is another good place but a lot of the information on there is held on subscription only sites which makes accessing the information beyond an abstract a bit of an issue sometimes.
    I think sometimes it might be nice to visit a library but I have to contend with the beach and the birds singing and all that instead - thank goodness for the internet
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