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Agency for Literary Review offers unpublished authors and first-time writers the opportunity to have their work assessed for free.

Free Advice and Assistance for the Novice Writer

Agency for Literary Review

The Value of Research

Research, whether to verify, find or expand details of your writing, or to see how another author or writer handles a plot or essay is essential to good writing.  That includes writing for business, writing stories, writing articles, writing essays or writing just for the hell of it.  But research is a valuable tool to assist in the creation of whatever it is you are writing.  Anyone who would eschew research as being difficult or too time consuming simply doesn’t know the value and the short cut it provides to getting your main work (writing) done.

If you, perhaps, are doing academic studies at the secondary or tertiary level and find writing essays or completing written assignments difficult, then you need to know how to use research.  If you are not doing academic studies then you still need to know how to use research (assuming you don’t already).

You need, for this exercise, a batch of lined 3 X 5 index cards (and a wide elastic band).  Write on the first card of the batch, what your assignment is or the working title of your story, or subject of your essay.  Then start your research.  It doesn’t matter how you research.  It is only a matter of getting relevant information; that’s why you wrote down your object on the first card, to keep your object in perspective.  Anything you find relevant to your object, write it on a card in your own words.  When that is done, write down the reference source, the page and the authority. 

If you transcribe the information, make sure you put it in quotes (so you won’t use the words, thinking you wrote them) and show the attribution details.  Use one card for one note except where there are additional references to the same information.  Every time you add a new note then rearrange the cards into order of preference.  Keep them in that order with the wide elastic band.   Keep on doing this until you have exhausted all sources of information or you have all the relevant data you need.

You might use people as a reference source.  If you interview people and don’t use a voice recorder, put the elements of the interview on card as well.  Remember to add to each card the date of the interview and the name of the person you interviewed and where you were when you did the interview.  When the interview is over, then write down on a separate card all of the details about the interviewee along with a comment in your own words as to their importance (or relevance) to your object.  Finally, take all of the cards from the interview, arrange them in order of preference, and clip them together with a paper clip and sort that item into the big bundle.

Periodically read through the cards in order, starting with the top card.  As you read, you may want to re-sort some cards.  Take a highlighter and draw a line on the back of each card.  This just tells you which is the back of the card so that you can expand your notes or comments from the front.  Sometimes you might tend to be a little cryptic with your note taking and this helps you get the gist of what you wrote before it disappears from your mind and you have to go and look it up again.  Then you will be glad you wrote down the source and the page number.

When the research is done then it is time to sit and write.  You will find, if you are writing an essay, for example, that it virtually writes itself as you read through your cards and those expanded comments you wrote on the reverse of the cards.  Moreover, all bibliography and source information is just a matter of copying from the cards. You have little else to do now other than phrase your argument or weave your spell of words.

Research Methods:

There are as many methods of doing research as there are valid sources.  Reading something is research, trying to remember it is not.  You need to set up a system of storing information that is quickly searched and retrieved if you don’t want to spend much of your time in frustration looking for some data that you know you copied down…somewhere.

Direct Method: Do not assume you know anything.  Unless you really do know something then you need to research it.  For instance, everyone knows how a transport operation works, right?  Well, do you?  Consider sending something toxic or flammable or illegal through the system.  Ask yourself, do they have any safeguards in place, or can everyone send bombs or drugs or stolen property or contraband anywhere they like?  Of course not.  So you need to know how their system works before you can write about it.

The best source for that information is a transport company.  This applies to things like security systems, search and rescue teams, police, fire departments and even the librarian to find out what really happens inside a library.  It is just as simple, in most cases, as fronting up.  People really do like to help out, provided you are polite and prepared to ask.  Don’t waste their time though.  Write out a list of questions beforehand that you specifically need answers to and listen to what they say.  Sometimes your questions are just unanswerable because there are too many variables or because answers in that area compromise security or company protocol so don’t push for exact answers.  Explain what it is you want, why you want it and what and how it will be used.  Something told to you in confidence should never appear in your writing but you can still use the information to shape your story. 

It really is not a good idea to phone for an appointment.  People aren’t certain what to expect and they will generally find a way to put you off.  But, once there, and you have explained your quest and given them a sample of the type of questions you wanted to ask, give them the option to fob you off to someone else or to have you come back at a more convenient time.  Mostly, they will answer your questions themselves and do so then and there.  Maybe a psychologist can give you a reason why it seems to work like that.

You might find that you need, at a later date, to get some more information from that same source.  It will be considerably easier to do if, after your first session, you took the time to mail a short note thanking them for their assistance.

If you read the section on the use of 3 X 5 cards, doing this form of direct question research is an ideal use of the cards.  Don’t forget to paper clip them together and write the details on the front card.

Web Research:  You can probably find it on the Web.  Almost everything you want to know can be tracked down on the Web.  You do need to learn how to do it successfully, though.  Spend some time visiting sites that tell you how to search the Web.  Learn how to refine your search to specific information that you want.  Importantly, check the date of the information.  Many websites have been up for a long time and have been archiving data for a longer period still, and because they are trying to digitise all of their resources, many old, old documents will turn up with old, old data long since changed, refuted or now irrelevant.

This site has a very simple explanation for the effective use of search engines.  It was valid as of 03/08

http://www.learnwebskills.com/search/engines.html

You need to find a way of storing the information you find on the Web.  Printing it out as hardcopy is a hit and miss affair.  Not all websites are printer friendly, which you might discover after your printer has queued hundreds of pages when all you wanted was one paragraph. 

You can select, copy and paste to another document but that is often awkward to do and you can forget what you attempted to save it as.  That means you have to sift through all the documents trying to find the one you want.

A very neat solution is to purchase  software that does it all for you at the click of a mouse.  There are several available for downloading and testing before buying.  A favourite in this office is Net Snippets.  It allows you to organise your research into folders and sub folders together with photographs and other relevant data.  

For some reason, unfathomable, the creators of Net Snippets, www.4Developers.com elected to disassociate from the product in March 2007.  We are not in the habit of recommending software or websites but there was a free version of this program at one time and it is certainly worth investigating to see if some of the shareware websites include it in their offerings.  

A download of version Net Snippets 1.0 is available at this site (last checked 09/07).

http://www.bluechillies.com/download.html?sid=4176

Scanned Items: If you have a scanner and tend to copy pages from reference books or other research sources onto your computer you should transfer or copy the scanned image onto a document in your word processor.

When that is done, type out the scanned document (digitise) onto the same page.  The scanned item is a picture and cannot be manipulated.  If you type it out then you can work with it while all the data is visible, rather than having to jump back and forth between your typescript and the scanned image.  You then need only to cut and paste it into your typescript.

You may have Optical Character Recognition software installed on your computer but it is generally faster to just type it yourself.  The actual relevant information is not likely to be more than a paragraph or two.

Data Storage and Recovery:  You should not have to be told to back-up your data.  Learn how to do it the easy way.  Create one folder to hold all of your research, all of your writing, all of your notes and all of your snippets.  Create sub folders for each of these and sub folders again for specific projects.   For example if you are working on two projects titled, Biding My Time, and, Not Right Now, you would create a folder called, say, Current Projects.  Then you would create sub folders for BMT and NRN.  You would create sub folders in each of these to act as containers for the research.

It is all contained in the one folder called Current Projects.  You need only copy that one folder to whatever back-up system you employ.  Back up that folder every time you add any data to your research files or add any more to the ongoing projects.  If your computer doesn’t wake up one morning, you will be very relieved to know that you have put your back-up copy safely away somewhere.  Where is safe?  Anywhere that is not likely to burn up at the same time your house or office does.  Also, occasionally check the backed up version to make sure it is readable on your computer…or your next.

Test Your Research Ability:  If you have continued reading this far then you are perhaps serious enough to warrant a little investment in your potential.  If you like, you may contact us by email, using the subject heading 'Research Offer' and we will supply you (without charge or obligation) a complete and previously unpublished story outline,  with plot, characterisation and style.  You will be given a few paragraphs to get you started (you can change them as you wish or delete them) and whatever you do with the story is yours. The purpose is for you to test your ability to build a story and to make it believable through research.

Let's see if you are as good as you think you are.