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Monday, August 3, 2009
Learning to Research
I've always shied away from writing professionally or having to write in a non-creative way. Mostly because I never liked doing research. I never liked doing research because I never knew how. Sure, reports always turned out good in school, but I was never really sure if I was doing it right. There was always that feeling that it could have been better. I thought that if I knew where to look, then I'd have more and better information to put into my report. The report would be more complete and less juvenile sounding. While there was plenty of talk on how not to plagiarise, there wasn't much talk on what or how research should be done. So, here I am today, trying to teach myself what I wasn't taught before. Using common sense, Google and a few tips picked up along the way, I do small projects. For the past couple of days, I've been doing research for an article that I decided to write just be cause the topic interested me. Imagine that! It's not finished yet. I'll let you know when I post it. Until then, if you guys have any suggestions, post them in the comments section.
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Believe it or not, I actually like research...but I don't think of it in the usual way.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm contracted to write something that I know very little about, the first thing I do is google it. I print off the most simple examples and take a little from this and a little from that but I use my own words.
The other thing I do is go to the children's department at the library. You can find almost every topic covered there and it always gives me a whole new perspective thats simple and easy.
Two years ago I had so much freelance work I had to subcontract some of it out. Most of it was for educational publishers. I became the queen of trivia. I learned a little bit about a lot of things.
Oh! The other thing I do before I start any project is "braindrop"...you can find that on my blog for writers http://ignitetowrite.blogspot.com/
You'll be surprised at how much you already know!
I think I'm the opposite...I love the research, but then have trouble putting the info into nicely readable form.
ReplyDeleteI love the research too! But I always get discouraged writing in my own voice. That seems to be my downfall always.
ReplyDeleteIdea for an article; how much tv and video games are too much for our children. There is so much contradictory advice out there....