How does Michel Houellebecq, the name of fine literature, know so much about haploid gametes? I can imagine him writing by the window, Paris rooftops laid like beautiful women as far as the eye can see. It’s 1997, the end of Western civilization. The rooftops are burning, and Houellebecq is drafting Atomised.
But that’s completely off-topic.
Speaking of which, the question is pending – how come writers know so much about everything?
Now Houellebecq is smirking: research, research, research.
In my humble experience as a content writer, I’ve become an expert in hair transplants, HR, bed bugs, data collection, proxies, crypto trading, interior design, credit cards, THC, and legal contracts. That was only this month. Over the years, I’ve written about everything, from soup to nuts – and I loved it.
How do I research all these specific, often obscure, niche topics?
A writer must read – a lot.
And I don’t mean books. Well, I read them, too, and I warmly recommend creating a habit out of it, but more on that later. Whether you’re a hired writer or a wanna-be auteur, you should do a lot of reading. You might have a different topic each day or not; the approach is still the same – before you write, read.
You can research most topics with Google at a glance and in-depth.
For every 800-word article, I typically spend an hour googling and reading – at least.
When a topic doesn’t ring any bells, like the aforementioned haploid gametes, I keep reading until I know enough to explain the subject matter to my toddler (he’s pretty smart). Of course, the depth of knowledge you should acquire depends on the level of expertise you’ve been requested to deliver.
In any case, researching a topic means reading about it.
Finding the best sources
You should know that most articles on the internet are paid. They’ve been written by experts-by-the-hour, writers like you and me. Regrettably, not all of us approach our jobs with the same work ethic. Not all of us care about integrity. Some of us have better things to do. Somewhere else to be.
Be that as it may, you should learn to recognize a lazy writer from the first sentence.
Curated sources are not all bad, far from it, but reading the source material is better. As a rule of thumb, credible sources such as encyclopedias, textbooks, and scholarly journals are the best. Common problems with these sources are their length, inaccessibility, or technical jargon.
For quick research, the best alternatives are:
- Online magazines that conduct their research;
- News outlets that write and post first-hand reports;
- Websites with .edu and .org domains (all reputable).
When researching less academic-oriented topics, such as blogging or beauty, you generally have to rely on your digital and information literacy. You will learn to recognize a (real) expert blog writer in time. You can also tell when that writer is trying to sell something without actually selling it.
That is something you get from experience, so reading is critical.
Evaluating source credibility
There is a systematic way of double-checking information quality, though.
Many writers use the so-called CRAAP test, which California State University developed in 2004 to help students with their research. You can apply it to both academic papers and blog posts. Considering how much misinformation circulates the internet lately, anyone could benefit from using the CRAAP test.
Here’s how it goes:
- Currency: Is the source up-to-date?
- Relevance: Is the source relevant to your research?
- Authority: Where is the source published? Who is the author? Are they considered reputable and trustworthy in their field?
- Accuracy: Is there evidence to support the source? Are the claims cited correctly?
- Purpose: What was the motive behind publishing this source?
The last one – purpose – is the one I use most frequently. I’ve mentioned this earlier, but it’s too important not to do it twice. A whopping percentage of online content exists for content marketing purposes. Educational, glad-to-be-of-help content is so rare that you can spot it from miles away.
Active reading as a practice
All the best writers I know take notes.
Note-taking is so incredibly helpful because it forces you to pay attention and helps you process and acquire information on the go. You can do it the old-fashioned way, using a pen and paper. You can also download a browser extension that lets you highlight in different colors as you read.
Having two screens also helps, or you can split one screen in half. That will enable you to take notes directly in the document where you’ll be writing the article and keep researching the topic on the other half of the screen. I’ve found the highlighter thingy and split-screen combo to be the most effective.
In addition to notes, there’s another component to active reading: curiosity.
So, let’s talk about that.
Nurturing an open mind
Although I already knew a trick here and there, I spent some time reading about this topic before researching “researching” became too meta for my taste. Perhaps I’ve become a research expert since most of the best practices were already familiar to me. However, to my surprise, I did learn something new:
People love researching topics they know nothing about.
Many of us take immense pleasure in finding answers to random questions like “How do bikes work,“ “Why is 70% of Spain empty,“ “Who is Michel Houellebecq,“ or “What’s the purpose of life.“ There’s joy in setting intellectual challenges and pushing the boundaries of knowledge. Researching and learning are at the center of that.
As writers, we should try not to forget that.
Research every subject matter as thoroughly as you can for the sake of curiosity, which inspires change and breeds creation. Learn something new to potentially teach somebody something important. Study your haploid gametes. Don’t just wing it because your pasta has just arrived (super creamy, by the way).
Next time you’re researching an unfamiliar topic, open your mind and keep reading.
