May 24, 2021
I’m not going to lie. Finding research for my articles is my least favorite part of composing an article. There, I said it. But that doesn't come from the fact that I don’t like reading and learning, it’s actually quite the opposite.
I’m a curious being by nature and like to discover and learn more and more each and every day. Being a psychology student only helps this situation as I’m fairly accustomed to reading academic papers and being exposed to hypothetical questions on a regular basis.
My fear of researching for my articles more so comes from the fact that I love free-style writing and I’m afraid of adding research to my articles in the sense that it will detract from my natural writing tone.
What scares me the most about doing research for my articles can be summed into two major concerns:
The reason I created this guideline is I know I’m not the only one having those fears. Researching can be the most dreadful part of writing for many writers out there. I frequently stumble upon articles that fail to incorporate research findings in a smooth way, in a manner that balances out the writers' voice and the research.
That makes the writing dull and makes it seem like a carbon copy, sucked out of its soul. I’m also guilty of this. I wrote research-heavy articles that sound too mechanical in the past, without having the intention of making them too didactic.
Considering you’re not writing an academic paper but a reader-friendly article, you wouldn't want your writing to sound too mechanical. If they wanted to read the research, they’d read that, not your article. We want to give a flowy reading experience to the reader, but we also want to back up our points with some sturdy resources when needed.
What we should aim to do when we’re writing a research-based article — not an academic paper — is to do our research, but incorporate it in a way that it doesn't look like we copy and pasted and changed a few words or phrases to avoid plagiarism like maybe we did in our school papers.
As a person who also struggled with this issue, and wrote many research-based pieces in the past, I grew to follow some strategies that assist me in my researching process as a writer. These strategies help me incorporate research in my articles without unintentionally turning them into something that resembles an academic report.
Now let’s go through step by step on how to compose a research-based article from beginning to end:
Table of contents
· Start with Your Questions in Mind
∘ What to do if you have no questions & ideas
∘ Organize your questions & ideas
· Consult Reliable Resources
∘ How to search for your topic via research databases
∘ Research from non-scientific resources
· Digest the Materials
∘ How to digest the material faster and efficiently
· Take Notes
· Write Your Article Based on Your Research
· Do Heavy Editing
∘ Don’t plagiarize or steal someone else’s work
∘ Use hyperlinks
∘ Rearrange your piece
· Conclusion
To start composing your article, ask yourself these questions to gather ideas for your piece:
To begin writing an article from scratch, try to catch those ideas and questions that come to your mind midair. Then choose something you are curious to find the answers for and would be interested in investigating further and write about.
Maybe you’ve read a book and you’re highly impacted by it as it inflicted exciting thoughts and ideas into your head. Maybe you feel like you want to sit and write hastily after you listened to a podcast that cleverly answered your questions and sparked even more questions in your mind.
You have to ask questions to guide your writing. It’s the first step of composing an article. You write an article because you want to answer and resolve a question, explain the issue at hand from your perspective. Most article headlines are almost always questions or short answers to those questions. The starting point of creating an article is asking questions.
Search for something. Fuel your curiosity. Feed yourself intellectually to come up with fresh ideas. Get inspired by something. From an inner problem to a problem that you think society faces, anything can be your question or topic of concern for your writing piece.
You can also create an idea bank and add in all the questions that have been keeping your mind busy and you want to find the answers to. Fill in the ideas and questions as they come to you, and check that idea bank regularly to see if you want to tackle any of those questions and whether you want to base an article on them.
Make your selection from a wide array of issues that can be tackled by you. Make sure it’s an area you’re interested in, and want to search for answers to it yourself. You wouldn't want to write about a topic that doesn't interest you to begin with, if you’re not specifically writing for a client or for someone else.
Make sure your question or topic of concern is clear, as trying to answer abstract thoughts will be harder. Identifying and solidifying your topic will make it easier for you to target the main concern you want to resolve and make your article to the point, without it being dragged to multiple, irrelevant directions.
Note down your questions and ideas, write down a possible article headline about the idea you chose and fill it with subideas below that clarify the points you want to focus on in your writing and want to focus your research on.
Create that first draft to make your head clear. Of course, after your research, your points can shift or change, but still, your first points will give you direction in what you want to focus on for your writing.
Also, after you decided on your topic and questions you want to answer, you’d want to search up articles that are on the same or similar topic. Look at what other people wrote about the topic at hand and see what new perspectives you can bring to the situation.
After you find and get clear with what you want to write about and make your research on, start searching for resources that will provide you the different perspectives and answers to your question, which brings us to the next point:
After you’ve decided on what to write and what points you want to make in your article to answer the target question, it’s time to scour the web or other sources to make some research to back up your points.
Or even if you didn’t decide on something, as it is mentioned in the previous point, you can search for topics that spark questions in your mind by looking into the wide sea of resources online or any material that will offer you fresh ideas and insights.
In both cases, you need reliable sources to do your research. It’s important to note that not every source is reliable or will be relevant to use for your article. You can’t make scientific claims by linking a personal blog; a research article or an article that is research-supported would be much more appropriate.
Here’s a list of some of the resources I know and use while composing my research-backed articles. Some are journals, some databases, some magazines, but they all based on science and they either involve the research itself or credible articles written by people in academia based on research.
This list could definitely be extended further. But these are all scientifically based and will help you out immensely in constructing your research-based articles.
Side note: If you’re especially using magazines and non-educational websites/databases as your resource, you’d also want to check the credibility of the article published in that source. You can do this by checking the credentials and affiliations of the author, look if it is up-to-date, and check out the actual research included in the articles.
When you want to find studies and research articles related to your topic at hand, searching them up on these research databases & journals would be more helpful rather than simply typing them on Google.
To make a search on a research database, write the keywords for your topic in the search bar of the website, which in most research databases you can find on their homepage:
There are filters on these websites you can use that will make your job easier too. After you type in what you want to search for, you’ll see that there are a lot of irrelevant articles, and you’d want to filter out some of those to reach the more relevant articles for your topic.
For example, you can filter the date of the article published to reach more recent articles; after all, the more recent the article, the better. Most times, a research paper from the 1970s won’t be relevant when you can find the same topic studied and reported much more recently.
You can also make an “advanced search” on these research databases to narrow the results and get closer to what you’re looking for. On advanced search, you can search for more keywords related to your topic and search for the specifics you’re looking for.
Moreover, not all research has to be scientific. Other than science-based research, you can also base your research on non-science-related sources as well, based on what type of article you’re writing. These will especially be useful if you are writing a commentary or opinion piece.
You can benefit from the journalistic articles published previously in magazines, publications, that are written by fellow writers, journalists, and media people, who touch upon the issues you refer to in your article. Some of these resources I use and know include:
And the list would be extended based on what you’re looking for. Let me note that when it comes to journalism, it’s important to take notice of the political views of the publications and of the authors to reduce bias and report more objectively.
This is why consulting various resources is crucial while structuring your piece. To be more objective and reliable, you have to consider different viewpoints. It will also make your piece richer. This way you can be more self-assured with your piece and make it more complete. The more reliable resources you construct your piece on, the better.
Other than these types of resources, you can also most definitely consult books, documentaries, movies, podcasts, videos, TED talks, quotes, visual material, etc., as long as you think they’ll contribute to your article and you think that they are reliable sources.
These sources not only will provide the answers to your questions, but they can also spark up newer questions in your mind that you’d potentially want to investigate in the future and write another article on the issue.
Browsing these sources every once in a while with the curious mind of a writer/researcher can inspire you to create something new! They all contain an ocean of insights that will fire your creativity neurons.
To be able to write your research-based article, you need to make sure you understand the material you’re including in your article. If you’re including a research article, make sure you understand the research findings that at least are important for your article and any other detail that seems significant.
You don't have to read in detail all of the articles just to write 2–3 sentences about that article in your writing. Or else it would be time-consuming and unnecessary. If you’re curious, that’s another issue. But you don’t have to read all of it meticulously to add only some of the relevant points to your writing. The important and relevant parts will cut the deal for you. You can pass the excess parts to save your time & energy.
Because of this reason, first and foremost, you’d want to check out the abstract of a research article. The abstract part is like a short summary of the research article that reveals chunks from the purpose of the article, hypothesis, research question, important findings, and discussion. It generally tells you about what the research article is offering.
If the abstract of the article doesn't answer the questions in your mind, check the conclusion and discussion parts of the article in which the whole purpose of the research and the results are summarized, or any other part that you believe would contain important information for your piece; from the methods, measurements, to the introduction parts.
If it isn’t a research paper/article we’re talking about, make sure you understand the points made in the material in front of you, whether it be a journalistic piece, TED talk, documentary, book, etc. You can again focus more on the more relevant parts rather than trying to finish them all, to save yourself time. Don’t be afraid to skim through these materials. You mostly don’t need every detail.
In the end, make sure you understand and comprehended what you read, watched, listened to, etc., at least the parts that are relevant for your writing. To understand whether you comprehended the material, you can explain it to others, or well, explain it on paper. This brings us to the next step.
While researching, reading, and trying to understand the material at hand, it’s best if you take notes aside, simultaneously or after digesting the material, to not forget the important points you want to emphasize in your article.
Everyone has different note-taking strategies. There are a variety of note-taking formats that you can utilize in line with your own taste and what works best for you.
If you’re reading, you can simply highlight the important parts of the material and return to the highlighted parts later to not forget about the important points you might want to add to your own article.
You can also restructure some sentences in your own style and paraphrase, but to do that you need to properly cite the article and you can’t do this with every sentence, or it will be an academic paper.
Or you can simply note what you extracted from these materials after you’re done with them in your own words, in the way you understood the material without paraphrasing — you can see more about this below in the editing step.
You can write down at the end of investigating your material the points that stuck to your memory, and what you’ve extracted. These insights may reveal some good parts for use in your writing.
Besides taking notes at the end, you can take notes simultaneously. As you’re reading the margins, listening to the words that are spoken, watching the video; take notes of the parts that seem to be important, and even note down your related ideas & points you want to touch on in your article that is linked to those things in the material.
You’re going to use and benefit from these notes while composing your article. They will make your job much easier rather than simply reading different research or sources and trying to keep everything in your mind. With the latter strategy, you’ll for sure forget some parts that may be important.
So make sure you highlight and take notes of the important parts of each source you use to eliminate the potential of mixing up and confusing everything and also to speed up your writing process.
There are two different approaches to go here. You can either start writing from scratch after you did your research and took all your notes down, or start writing a draft that leaves space for your research, by basically spilling your personal thoughts and ideas and do your freestyle writing from the beginning and add in the points from research and alter some parts later.
Personally, I generally go with the latter option in most of my articles. It’s because I’m already familiar with the topic I’m writing about and have some ideas surrounding it, it’s not that it’s a completely unfamiliar topic.
But I also obviously have gaps in my knowledge about it, that’s why I need to refer to research. To strengthen and polish my points, to benefit from diverse perspectives, to fact-check, to make sure I’m not claiming wrong things, etc.
I do a lot of thought dumping in the beginning, as I create my first draft. I clarify the issues I want to find the answers to and delve into in more depth, as we saw in the first point of this article. I tell a related personal story if I have any to make it more relatable for the reader.
If you also feel closer to this approach with your writing piece at hand, first write whatever you want to write and from what comes up to your mind in a state of flow. You can always add in and alter some parts later; you’ll have to, that’s why editing is so important.
If you feel better about following the other approach, start writing once you digest the material, did your readings and research, and took your notes; then start writing with the perspective and insights from what you’ve learned.
Both options can work depending on how efficient each is for your writing style and what your piece at hand requires. If it’s a topic you don’t know much about, or you plan it to be a heavily research-based article, first doing research and then starting to write will be wiser.
If it’s a topic you know and have many opinions on, and want to add in research to clarify and strengthen those points, first thought dumping and then adding in related research can come in handy.
Don’t worry if some points you made may be wrong or your writing sounds dumb in the beginning. You just want to make sure you don't forget the aspects of the issue you want to clarify, that’s why you’re writing it down.
What you wrote can be altered, cut, and deleted while you edit. Your first draft is a free space that helps in guiding you in which direction you want your piece to go. Freely add in your thoughts surrounding your idea, add in the relevant research with the details you deem important. Then you can shorten the lengthy, excessive details and irrelevant parts.
I think editing is even more crucial when you write an article that is research-heavy. You wouldn't want it to sound too technical from all those research-related terms and expressions. We want our article to offer the readers a flowy and easy-to-understand reading experience.
If you want to directly add something from the material, quote it directly and cite the source. Just as citing the source while quoting, you need to cite the source if you’re paraphrasing a sentence from the research too.
If you want to paraphrase, let’s say, the finding of the article you can paraphrase the sentence like this: “Johnson and Johnson (2018) claimed/found/supported in their research that…” Or you can simply say: “In this research made in 2018 by Johnson and Johnson, it was found that…” and add the hyperlink to the research in that sentence.
Even if you don’t do any paraphrasing or quoting, you still need to give reference to the sources you used, even if you explained it fully in your own words without referring to the exact sentences.
Because you’re borrowing the idea from that source and you can’t act like you are the founder of the idea, and the readers would like to know if there are any external sources that support what you’re claiming and that you're not simply flourishing facts. They need to trust you.
Also, by adding the hyperlinks, you’re ensuring that they can check these external sources you put and look into them further if they are curious about the topic. So hyperlinks are non-negotiable in your research-based article!
You can simply do this by adding a hyperlink to where you’re talking about the research/source you used or by adding the source to your reference list at the bottom of your article. But mostly hyperlinks will do, considering that you’re not writing an academic piece but rather a writing piece supported by research.
After writing, dumping the ideas down, explaining your points, adding in the research insights, and composing a probably detailed and wordy article, you’d want to do heavy editing on it, which means editing it multiple times, with fresh eyes.
There will for sure be unnecessary and over-detailed parts to be cut out, words to be changed, sentence structures to be altered, and you might have extra points you might want to add that came to your mind later on — of course, after adding those you’d again want your piece to sit and wait to make alterations on the latest additions too — .
In short, your piece needs heavy editing, so prioritize editing. Don’t be impatient with it, especially with research-laden pieces. You want to spend time on editing and make it sit and edit, sit and edit…
The thought of doing and incorporating research into your writing can be dreadful, especially in the beginning, when you open a blank page and construct an article from scratch. But by following these steps, you can be sure that this process will be less arduous and even more fun!
Go step by step with your writing, don’t rush it. If you want, bookmark this article so you can come back and follow the steps while composing your research-based piece. Do what works best for you in your writing, but also let some guidelines help you along the way, especially if you’re confused about such a process.
Then you can focus on the fun parts of doing research and leave everything aside to tackle it in a more self-assured way, knowing that you’re following a structure and have fun with your writing!