Research Resources and Tips for Truly Unique Articles

If you want to create original content, you are going to have to do some old fashioned original research. It is a time consuming work, but if you want to write a great article, it must be done. It also helps to prepare for writing lengthy articles—you don’t want to continually break away from the creative process.

There are three phases to how I do research. Each phase has a different purpose, and I do it this way because it is very effective. This is not rocket science, but it helps to develop a rhythm for your work process.

Gathering

The gathering phase, for lack of a better name, is the time spent gathering content. The sources I use will heavily affect the contents of my article. Here are a few places to begin your search for your next great article:

Search engines:

• Google
• Mahalo
• Ask

Books:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders

Videos:

• YouTube
• Viddler
• Vimeo

Newspapers:

• The New York Times
• LA Times
• Chicago Tribune

News Agencies:

• Rueters
• Associated Press
• CNN

Encyclopedias:

• Wikipedia
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Encarta

Along with those, you could also use a blog as a source—shocking, right?

Regardless, your sources should be legitimate. This is also true if you are making bold claims against a person or company. You want to get praise—not lawsuits—for your hard work. Bloggers are not immune to the judicial system.

Evaluation

After I have gathered my content, it is time to evaluate it. I will quickly evaluate content to see if it is of any use to me. I’m a fast reader, and I can tell if an article is going to be any good pretty fast. I will discard any content that isn’t useful, and, if needed, I’ll go back to find additional content.

In-Depth Research

With all the preparation (which, as always, is very important) out of the way, it is time to study everything I have gathered. Thus begins the most time consuming process of writing a truly unique and original article. Using an application that allows me to keep notes (or even a simple notepad) is always ideal (this topic is for another article entirely), but every person is unique.

Regardless, this article is aimed at those who really put in a lot of effort into their research. These types of articles are the ones that receive notice and respect.

Admittedly, it is hard work—it certainly isn’t the most exciting thing someone could be doing. You will only feel great to have put all that time and effort when your content is found and appreciated by readers. But that is a decision you have to make. If you are going to be the best, you better put in the hard work—otherwise you could just be like every other blogger within the blogosphere.