How to have a succesfull research day
Hello there, how are you?
Nafeesa here!
We’re almost there to celebrate our one year anniversary and I thought to write a series of blogposts (for my “blogmas” week.) When I first started off with blogging I would only be posting stories. As the months went by and I upgraded my blog to a more professional server and got comfortable with it. I Started off with blogposts titled under the name “Just for you.” These blogposts talk about everything from being bookstagramer to being a blogger.
Today’s blogpost is the first in the “blogmas” series. As you have probably discovered by the title, this blogpost is all about conducting research. When I started off with my blog, I had no idea on how to research and organise all my findings. Due to this I stopped writing blogposts for the longest time. To help you from falling down the same hole, I wrote this post to help you all :-).
So, today we will be talking about, how I;
brainstorm
Research
Organisation
Before we get started, if you’re confused about the part where I actually talk about how to conduct your research know that this blogpost is just a little guide on the things I follow to actually start researching. There is no set way to research since everything usually depends on the topic you are researching on.
Brainstorming:
Before I get started on any blogpost I answer these 3 questions;
What am I looking for (Goal, aim, direction)?
What research am I going to have to do?
How can my blogpost be different to those of others?
What am I looking for (Goal, aim, direction)?
When answering this question I look for what content my blogpost will contain.
I take the following into account when deciding a topic;
What am I in the mood of writing?
Is there anything specific my audience has asked me to write on?
Do I have substantial prior information to share on this topic?
Will I be able to speak on this topic in a refined voice?
Is it possible for me to execute this blogpost in a way that is interesting and eye catching to my audience?
To help you further narrow down your topic work on your who and interests.
Your who determines your target audience and the interests determines the end product as well as the credibility of this content to your readers.
These two are very important when you are deciding on your topic and before you get started on research. They help you narrow down your research question and when your put that question in the search bear you end up with results that are more relevant to the topic you have decided on.
Research:
Now lets’ get onto the main topic of this blogpost.
You won’t be able to deliver an informative blogpost just from prior knowledge. Research every blog post you write, read blogposts written by other people on the same topic and think on how yours could be different. Research is vital, it provides you with core information which could back up your words in a way that you may not have known before.
What research am I going to have to do?
Once you have chosen your topic, you’re going to want to start on your research.
2 things to make sure to research on are;
Blogposts that have been written on the same topic (What content have they shared, what is their approach, is there anything they’ve mentioned that you didn’t know about?).
Content you can incorporate into your blogpost (Videos, images, graphs, profiles, etc)
2 things to remember while researching are;
To never plagiarise someone’s work. Make sure to understand and be able to comprehend whatever information you come across in your own words before sharing it. Remember just because something worked for someone else doesn’t mean it’ll work for you!
How can my blogpost be different to that of others?
Making sure that that your blogpost is different to what’s already out there helps you in reaching a wider audience. Some ways to do this is by;
- Reading what’s already out there, this way you know what to and what not to include.
Using a different tone
Including personal experience
Don’t write something just because 5 other people wrote the same thing — modify it to fit your theme and perspective.
Including multiple mediums through which you can deliver information (visual, literal, informative, etc) this makes blogposts much more interesting since its not just a bunch of words.
Forming a research questions
Research question? What’s that? Well, put in simple words a research question is what you type in your google search when researching on a certain topic. Forming a valid research question helps search engines in finding information that is relevant to your topic.
To formulate a valid and useful research question make sure to include the following:
What
Why
How
Where (if there’s a certain area you are looking towards, exp; YouTube)
For example;
How can hashtags help when trying to reach a bigger audience on instagram?
In comparison to;
Hashtags on instagram
The search with a well defined research question provides us with information that is more relevant to our topic in comparison to a random search with just the keywords.
Once you have answered all the questions mentioned above and followed the guide for your respective topic, you should be good to go! If you feel the need to conduct any more research feel free to do so. Remember there’s no “one approach fits all” plan, everyone has a different mindset, view and train of thought.
Organisation:
This section of the blogpost talks about how you can organise your information in a way that it’s easy for you to go through it. This way when you’re writing out your blogpost you don’t have to scramble here and there.
There are many different ways in which you can organise your information. It depends on your interests and the way you like to study things.
One way in which I like to organise my information and notes is by following this template: (click on the link to open it)
This way I can easily organise my information for each paragraph in order and be able to look through the pages as well. There’s also a notes section which I use to note down things that I find out while brainstorming or things I want to do differently.
The reason there are only 3 paragraph sections is because I follow the introduction, main body and conclusion format. However if you want to add more paragraphs in the main body, feel free to email me and I would love to make a new template for you :).
That’s a wrap for today y’all. I’ll see you again tomorrow and the day after and after….
If you have any questions feel free to comment them down below, or email me at: thereadingcornerstone@gmail.com ♡.
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