How to Perform Research for an Article

A free article on Article Marketing

By: Hege Crowton

Google
Google is the most common and popular place to begin research for a topic. Although everyone knows how to type a word or phrase into the Google search box and scroll through the results, there are some advanced search features that are not as widely known.

Put words within apostrophes-By putting a word or phrase within apostrophes, such as “article research,” Google will limit the search results to pages that contain the exact phrase within the apostrophes.

Advanced Search-If you are unable to find the information you desire, Google’s advanced search may be the best option for you. In addition to providing several ways to find and limit results, advanced search also provides features such as occurrence and domain searches, usage rights and similar page searches. The advanced search feature also allows you to search the full texts of books, scholarly papers and college web sites.

News Search-If you are writing on an article on a current event topic, Google provides a news search. The Google news search compiles results from the largest news providers, including Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN and the Washington Post. The news search also has an advanced search feature, which allows results to be filtered or limited by date and source.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia has quickly become one of the most popular destinations on the internet. For those who have not been exposed to the web site, Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia. Any individual with an internet connection can contribute, edit or create encyclopedia entries. There are several pros and cons to using Wikipedia as a research source. Wikipedia contains a very large amount of articles and information, so chances are, you will be able to find some kind of relevant information on the topic you are researching. Wikipedia articles also rank very high among Google search results, making them easily accessible from more than one source. The best feature of Wikipedia is the unique perspective it provides on many topics. Since the articles are written by individuals, they are normally more readable and less stiff than traditional encyclopedia entries. However, the ability of anyone to edit or create articles take away from the reliability of the web site. Therefore, Wikipedia is a good starting place to gain a general overview of a topic, but any information should be double checked against another source.

When researching and writing an article, it is important to avoid committing any form of plagiarism. Plagiarism can easily be avoided by crediting the original author when needed. If you research an article and then use the general idea to write you own, the article can be considered your own and there is no need to credit an outside author. However, if you take a direct quote or section from another article, it is best to avoid any potential problems by giving the original author credit within your article.