How to Conduct Effective Research for Article Writing

Planning is often considered the first step in any action. But when it comes to writing an article, research is the crucial starting point. Before you even begin to plan, you must plunge into conducting research. The research lays the foundation for your article and helps you develop a thorough understanding of your topic, providing you with the necessary information and insights to write a compelling and informative piece. In this article, we at Text Mercato have come up with how you can conduct effective research when you write an article.

A well-researched and planned content will never fail to captivate your readers. So, let’s explore more about it.

Define your research goals

If you are looking to conduct effective research, your first step towards it is that you should define your research goals. For defining your research goals, you will need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the objective of my research?
• What is the specific answer that I am looking for through this research?
• What is the scope of my research?
• What methodology should I follow in my research?
• What outcomes am I expecting out of my research?

When you answer these questions, you can define your research goals. This will you help to ensure that your research is focused, relevant, and meaningful. Thus, we can conclude that conducting research with well-defined goals can increase the quality and impact of your article. 

Identify your target audience

Once you define your target goals, you will need to identify your target audience. Target audiences usually refer to the set of people whom you want to target through your content. In other words, we can say that those are the recipients who get impacted by your research.   

For example, for brands that post articles on beauty tips, the target audience would typically include all individuals who are interested in beauty and skincare. This will comprise women and men of various ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds. The target audience may also be further refined based on their specific interests or preferences. Just think if you are looking to focus on individuals who are interested in natural or organic beauty products, or those who are in search of tips on their specific beauty concerns such as pimples, acne, aging, or dry skin.

Remember: Content that is tailored to the needs and preferences of the target audiences is more powerful in driving engagement.

Choose reliable sources

After identifying your target audience, you will need to make sure that you choose reliable resources for your research. With the rise of the internet and digital technologies, there is an abundance of information available at your fingertips. While this can be a great advantage for you to conduct your research, it also presents a challenge to you in terms of determining the reliability and accuracy of the information. So, you must choose reliable sources for your research. 

A reliable source should be:

• Up-to-date
• Relevant to your research
• The author and publication of that source should be trustworthy.
• The URL and the overall design of the website that you refer to should be trustworthy. (Mostly stick to websites with .edu or .org domains)

For this, you can brainstorm different sources of information - such as books, scholarly journals, or even online discussion forums but before doing so critically evaluate the reliability of each source before using it as a basis for research. For example, if you are writing an article about Covid-19, you can choose the following resources:

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
• https://nmji.in/
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/medicine 

Other common reliable resources that you can shoulder are:

• Google Scholar
• LexisNexis
• Government Open data
• OER Commons

Tips: Apart from books and journals, you can rely on encyclopedias, bibliographies, standard surveys or interviews, newspapers or magazines, and statistical results.   

Take notes and organize your information

Failing to plan is planning to fail! So, the last step towards conducting effective research for article writing is planning. Just like you jot down the important points during a lecture or meeting, it is mandatory to pen down significant information when you conduct research. It will not only help you ensure that you don't miss out on any key details, but it can also assist in retaining information for future reference. 

Once, note down them, you will need to organize them in a way that your article can reach the audience as they wanted. By devising a theme or dividing the information into sub-topics, sub-headings, or bullet points, you can ensure that your article is well-organized and easy to follow. By organizing this way, you can potentially save hours of stress down the road!

So, for conducting effective research for your article writing, please ensure to define your research goals, identify your target audience, choose reliable sources, take notes from the sources, and organize the gathered information. By following these, you can ensure that your research is relevant, focused, and can cater to the needs of your audiences and that your articles are well-structured, informative, and engaging. You can also reach out to Text Mercato for crafting a well-researched and well-structured article if you are short of time to do the relevant research.  

FAQs

1. Why is research important for article writing? 

Research is very important for any writer because it helps them to gather the necessary information along with supporting facts and evidence. It reduces the risk of your writing lacking credibility or trustworthiness.  

2. What are some effective research techniques? 

While conducting effective research for article writing, you must include the following:

• define your research goals
• identify your target audience
• choose reliable sources
• take notes and organize your information

3. How can I ensure my research is credible?

The most crucial step towards conducting effective research is to choose reliable resources and by choosing reliable resources you can ensure that your research is credible.