Where Do I Start Looking?

So, maybe you've been reading over the previous posts (or you're coming fresh to this one). All the research methods you've mentioned only work if I actually know what I'm looking for, you may be thinking.

But that doesn't always happen. You may know that there's a handicraft uses a hook and one that uses two needles, but you can't remember what each one is called. In these cases, the Internet probably works best as your search method.

To start, think of a few words that describe what you're looking for, like "two needle craft". A quick Google search has a knitting pattern as the third result. You can click on it, look at it, then do some other searches with "knitting" if you need to verify that it's the craft you want.

If that first search found nothing, think of other ways to describe it or things it's used for. Internet searches can help you quickly sift through information to track down what you want, and sometimes one article you find may have no information you need, but it may have terminology or phraseology that lets you find what you're looking for.

You've tried this and spent half an hour trying to find out what craft was used for those lace-ish placemats you have. (If it's comprised of loop or flower sections, probably tatting, but anyway…) Here's where you have to be willing to swallow your pride and risk some ridicule. Ask someone.

Find a message board (a forum) or possibly a blog about the topic you need the information on. (Or a message board you already frequent that has a diverse membership might work, if you want to try there first.) Find a general or questions section or leave a comment to ask the frequenters of that website what you need to know. Be polite about it, and you can even say you're a writer.

A number of people will kindly offer you plenty of information, and you may or may not escape ridicule from those who want you to "do your own research." (Ignore those ones; you are doing your own research.)

The site's identity isn't necessarily much of an indicator for if you'll be made fun of, either—I've had two experiences posting requests for similar information on a site for writers and once received wonderful information. The second time I was mocked (by different people than had helped me the first time.)

Don't take the ridicule personally. Smile at it and know that it's just another side effect of logic being sorely lacking in schools (among other things).

Rehinged

Back in August, I referenced my dark gothic poem "Rehinged". Almost a year after that poetry writing class that I took, and it's still my favorite, even though it was also one of the first ones.

I've therefore decided, since I like this so much and I've already told you about it, to post it. Dark poetry isn't everyone's thing, though, so if you're easily disturbed you might want to bypass this poem.

Just a warning. My fiction seems to specialize in things disturbing.

---

Rehinged

Her blood trails slowly down the wall
As the hands reach, grab after me.
Are they hands? What is that cold--
Wait, that's the metal of Mum's old
Knife. That's what they grab and want,
As if I really am that errant.
Kill myself? What good would that do?
Take it--I took it from Mum, too.
She thought it would be better that way,
To hide from the dark of another day.
You might question my sanity,
But her blood still cools in the hall.

The 'Zine Search

Many people know how to run an Internet search. Unfortunately, many people (particularly of the younger generation) are clueless when they need to research magazines.

If you're in college, your university probably has a subscription to EBSCO, or at least its Academic Search Premier subunit. This functions as a search engine for magazine articles, and sometimes you can find the full text of the article there on the site, so you don't need to worry about tracking down the print version.

Otherwise, though, you may be stuck with using your local library or libraries, looking things up the old-fashioned way. In this case, there's something called The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. It comes out every year and has all sorts of articles for the year divided by topic. It gives you the information you need to track down that potential source.

(I have encountered a librarian who didn't know what The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature was. That was sad.)

But whenever you search magazines, be aware of the magazine's reputation and intended audience. Is it a major reference for what's knew in technology, or have you never heard of it, before? Is it for tech whizzes or the average computer-illiterate layman? Is the author a self-educated computer whiz or a general researcher? Those factors can affect the source. Run an Internet search to find the answers, if you need to.

And the other main rule of searching magazines: be willing to ask librarians for help. Sometimes they can be a lot of help; sometimes they're more clueless than you are. But be willing to ask.

The War Between the Mediums

Is print or online research better? This argument is often oversimplified (though not by much) as the older generation's views against the younger's.

In actuality, both methods have their pros and cons, as well as a type of data that is better researched with them. For example, unless you have access to something like EBSCO (better known as Academic Search Premier, a database for magazine sources), you're going to need print sourced to find magazine articles. But why would you want to? Can't you find all the information in articles for free online?

Er… no…

Information isn't free. At least, specialty information isn't free. Usually. That's why, if you want specialty information, you'll probably have to go to the libraries in your area, and I don't just mean the public one. What colleges, universities, or large private schools might you have near you? Undergraduate and graduate schools in particular should offer access to a number of specialty journals and magazines so you don't have to pay for them.

General information, or even personal testimonies or quirky occurrences, are often best found online or in encyclopedias. (And while we're speaking of encyclopedias, I understand that studies have shown Wikipedia to have the same level of accuracy as Encyclopedia Britannica.)

The Wikipedia note brings the most common complaint about the Internet and praise of print books: accuracy. The general impression is the Internet is untrustworthy, whereas print sources are by default. It's certainly easier to put inaccurate information out on the Internet, since it costs nothing but time, but print sources—yes, even books—are not necessarily true in what they say.

Both books and web pages must be evaluated for trustworthiness: how old is the information, who is the author; what is the information's source? Even the web address of a site can tell you about the information's trustworthiness—is it a free host or a solid well-established one?—as can the publishing company of a book. A company you've never heard of may be more accurate than the big label, but the Internet can help, here. If a publishing company of a modern book doesn't exist online, chances are the information isn't the most trustworthy that you could find.

Also, primary sources (the original source for certain information) often must be looked up in print, but sometimes they're online. For example, I recently wanted to use some transcripts from the 9/11 interviews as sources in a speech, and as far as I could find, they were only accessible online.

Both online and print sources can work together. A quick Internet search can teach you enough about a topic for you to then pursue the specific information in print sources if necessary. A print textbook on your shelf—I collect them—can provide an overview of the body's vitamin requirements for you to research other perspectives online or in print.

It's not a war. It's a teeter-totter. You may prefer being at the top of one side or the other, but the best place to be can vary with context. Use whichever type of research you prefer by default, but you should at least be willing to check the other when necessary.

But What About the Flow?

It may have occurred to you, in this talk about research, that it's not all that easy to include it when you're writing. You could research before you start, true, but what about those things that you don't realize you were going to need, those last-minute things that you realize should be verified in the middle of writing them?

What do you do? Do you stop writing to dig up the fact? Do you wait till your first draft's done, then verify the information?

Stopping in the middle of writing your draft can mess up your flow and harm your writing productivity. Waiting means you can forget that you need to verify the information, or that you can lose the spot that needs verifying. Each method has its downsides.

And each has its places when it must be used. Sometimes the thing to be researched is a major plot element. If your hero's going to be stuck in a dungeon without food or drink, you'll need to find out how long a human can survive without water so you don't write your other characters taking a month to find him "just in time" when he should've been a corpse weeks before that. In that case, you'll want to write till you come to a pause, then dig out the research materials.

In most cases, though, you can wait. Finding that perfect name or word, double-checking that definition, verifying that blueberries are a late summer berry —all of these things are things that can wait till you're either done with your first draft or till you come to a natural writing pause.

But what to do so you know to come back to it and know what you wanted there? I use a rather simple technique: square brackets. Inside those brackets, I put what I was thinking, often in bold. This will end up looking like "[Henry's mother] brought them a plate of cookies."

Since I write on the computer, I later just need to search for "[" within my document, and I'll find all my notes. (In MS Word, you can also use the Comment function if you get long-winded.) The bold helps me find the notes during a quick read-through so I know what needs changing. For some stories I'll color it based on what type of research it is (place name, character name, fact check, worldbuilding detail, et cetera).

This square bracket thing can also work when you're writing and thinking of a word, but you know it's not the right one. Stick the one you're thinking and a note of what you're thinking about the word you actually want in square brackets, and keep going. It may take a calm week to randomly think of the word, but the story will be written without you being stuck on the single word, or name, or whatever.

Researching by 'Net Surfing

If you've spent enough time online to find this blog, you've probably heard of search engines, websites that let you search the World Wide Web to find what you're looking for. A myriad of search engines exist, with some of the most popular being Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com (previously AskJeeves). Windows Live Search, the successor to MSN, also seems to be gaining popularity.

There are lots more search engines, too, and all have their own "quirks." Google tends to work the best for me, but I'm sure there are useful sites I don't know about because Google doesn't have them in the index and therefore doesn't include those sites in search results. But all the main search engines can be searched the same way, following the same rules so if you know how to use one, you can use them all.

The first rule of online research is technically to find trustworthy sources, but frankly, that comes with practice. Things to look for include what's the host site, who's the author, when's the copyright date, when was it most recently updated and so forth.

But if you're trying to find the sites with information so you can evaluate them in the first place, be specific. Are you looking for how to open an Xbox? Then search for that. Type the whole phrase in if you like, though with practice you might learn that it works just as well or better if you type Xbox open "how to".

That brings to the second rule of thumb: play with quotation marks (""). Quotation marks in Internet searches signal exact phrases that you want to search for. Different people often phrase things differently, so you have to be willing to toy with your search. Try making some things exact phrases, then try the search again without. (For example, remove the quotation marks from the "how to".

The third tactic is easiest if you have a good vocabulary already or are good at skimming. It's rephrasing your search words. This can come from your head, from a thesaurus, or from noting other ways sites you've already found have mentioned the material. Like, in my example, you could try take off Xbox outer casting, though I'm not sure that would find more answers than the other attempt. Wikis like Wikipedia can be helpful in this, when all else fails (though I understand that studies have found Wikipedia every bit as accurate as your regular encyclopedia).

Notice that in all my examples, I have more than one word. Specifics are better. Don't just type in commas when you want to know the grammar rules for using commas. And I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm talking to a baby—this tip seriously doesn't occur to some people.

Does following these guidelines mean that you'll necessarily find every single thing you're looking for on the Internet? No. I've had at least one experience in article writing for neither I nor my boss could find enough information to write the article she wanted me to write, and it was on a topic that you'd think would be online.

Search engines have other features that can make research easier, but I think these basic ones I've covered will work for now. Does anyone else have a favorite search engine worth sharing?

But I Hate Research!

Oh, stop whining. I hate writing essays (usually), but I do it when I must. And yes, research is a must when you're writing.

"Why?" you may ask. "I know precisely what I'm writing about!"

But do you have the details correct, my dear fellow writer? (One of the many reasons I love Google's "define:" function: sometimes the context you learned a word from used it wrongly.) When even the slightest grain of doubt appears, when you find yourself guessing, you must check. When using a word that you can't remember the dictionary definition of but you know you've seen used like you're using it, check! It will spare you many an embarrassment.

"But I'm writing a novel, not an article" you say. "It's artistic license." And I'm sure that's precisely what your reader's thinking when you have your heroine fling some knitting across the room and have the old lady patter over to it, pick up the hook and keep going without any trouble.

In case you didn't notice or don't know, knitting uses needles. Two of them. And it makes noise. And you don't just "knit"—there are stitches. Stitches in knitting also have the unfortunate tendency to come off the needles (be "dropped"), and when that happens, the stitch can unravel all the way down to the base of the fabric. Repairable, but a pain.

I can at least "read" most objects' fabric to tell you what craft made them even when I can't personally repeat the task. (Though I've done that, too.) Macramé, knitting, crochet, Tunisian crochet, croknitting, tatting, weaving—all these and other crafts have distinct appearances and produced fabrics. Knitting is more elastic than crochet, but crochet's easier to shape and makes a thicker—but more holely—fabric. Croknitting produces a very thick fabric, but it's nice and stretchy like knitting with some of crochet's ease of shaping. And I could continue.

That was most likely more than you ever wanted to know about those crafts. I don't expect you to remember it, either. But I do expect you to describe a craft correctly if you're going to include it in your book or use it as an analogy in your writing. Otherwise, I have no reason to trust what you've written or to trust you. In fact, if you neglected to do your duty and research this minute detail, why should I trust any of your details?

I've heard a similar complaint from people in martial arts. A lot of books describe violence in impossible ways. For example, being struck in the face is a horrible wrecking ball to the self-confidence, I've read from someone who's had that happen in her classes. You don't just bounce back up when that happens.

I mentioned I made this sort of error once, myself. In a novel roughdraft, I had my character cook some mash. Problem: I had it boil. Mash doesn't boil; and, silly me, I hadn't even thought of checking that. "Creamy cereals boil; isn't mash like one of them?" I assumed. Wrongly.

For analogies, for details, or for novels—research is required for all of these. If you think you know what you're talking about, check to make sure you're correct. It takes time, yes, but thank the Internet—it's a whole lot easier, now!

…Usually. But you have to be willing to work with it, and to recognize when it's time for the "ol'-fashioned" library trip.

"But search engines won't work for me!" you protest. "I don't know enough about the topic to know where to start looking!"

Don't worry. I'll be teaching you how to research then, too.

New Theme for December!

I again thank MavFan for letting me put her work through the story grinder. You're brave! I'll see about looking over what I've done to it already and add an extra post if I find something that really should've been addressed but didn't get the chance.

If there's reader interest in seeing what I'd do to their own writings, let me know in the comments, would you? I'm fully capable of coding a contact form if there's need. I would refuse to look at anything with graphic sex, foul language (no blasphemy, please!), or with violence for the "fun" of it.

Nonetheless, my new theme for what remains of December is . . . research!

Now, now. Don't go screaming in the other direction. Research is important . . . as is having some idea how to research. I think you might find this month's posts useful, if only to find out what some people don't know. (And believe me, all of the things I've mentioned, I've had people react as if I'm a whiz 'cause I can do it. I can actually find what I'm looking for with an Internet search engine, for example, and that puzzles my eighteen-year-old brother.)

I'm something of an Internet junkie, I admit. If I can do it online, please let me. But unlike a lot of (particularly young) Internet junkies, I know full well how to go poking around the area libraries if I must. (I'm not just talking about the public library, either.)

Not only that, but it's a good idea to know what needs research when you're writing. From what gets into a lot of novels, these days, I think a lot of us writers tend to forget that not everything is open to artistic license. And I have an example that nails me in that one as much as it does everyone else. (I'm just fortunate that one friend caught the error. But she was not very happy with me.)

Ahhhh!

Please ignore the the tufts of hair drifting to the floor around the room. Shall we say that vacation + illness + makeup work + early finals due to a whooping cough outbreak = …messy?

Six tests and four hours on a final project in one day is not fun. Nope. Uh-uh.

My apologies for the missed post days. I've been in no condition to write anything helpful; at least, not to write any posts that anyone would want to read.

Anyway, that's what's been up. At least, as much as I'm going to admit to everyone. If I could've posted, I would've, but I couldn't.

I am going to work on that bad habit of going silent without warning when a crisis hits, though. I just don't think like a lot of people do. Seriously. The looks on people's faces can be fun, but it also means that I don't understand some things. (Like the "rude" line. Where is that?)

Anyway, time to post something useful. See you in a few minutes.