Ron’s Tuesday’s Tip: Researching the Net
Welcome to Ron’s Tuesday’s Tip. Every Tuesday I will share a tip with
you. This week is about:Researching the Net.
What is Researching the Net?
That’s a term referring to the idea of
searching for information on the internet. Almost everyone does it, but are
they doing it right.
Let’s look at the pitfalls first.
Unfortunately, there are a great many
pitfalls on the net that you need to be aware of. One of the biggest is ‘fake
news’.
There is fake news on both sides of
the political landscape. However most of it is on the left side. Still, you
need to be aware that there is fake news no matter your political persuasion.
It used to be that you could you one of the many ‘fact checkers’ to verify
facts. I’ve done that in the past.
But these days you have to be careful
even of fact checkers. Why? Because so many of them try to hide their true bias
behind words like non-partisan or neutral or something like that. The truth is
that everyone has a bias. Knowing the bias of the person who is rendering an
opinion on something is helpful to you. It enables you to evaluate their
opinion.
Follow the old adage that says,
‘follow the money’. Another tool is to examine their record, which way do they
usually lean?
Does that mean not to use fact
checkers? No. It means know and understand where they are coming from, then
consider their opinions.
What about Scams?
Another pitfall is the abundance of scam artists. They create URLs that look real but may just be a scam. Or worse, they could be Trojan horses. So be careful.
Your best bet is to use websites that
you know are reliable. If you must use a website that you don’t really know,
compare the information with other reliable resources.
How do you find Reliable Resources?
Chances are you already know a few
resources that you believe are reliable. That’s a good place to begin.
But assuming you have none to begin
with you will need to grow a library of reliable resources. When I first
started writing I didn’t know what I could and couldn’t trust on the internet.
But I did have reference books that I trusted. Since my books related to the
Bible, I also had trustworthy Bible Commentaries. That is where I started. I
compared the trusted material that I had with the material I found through
Google Search. Over time I built a record of trusted sites.
So, what is Researching the Net?
Basically, it is using Google or some
other search engine to search for information. Novels are fiction, but you want
them to be based on as much fact as possible. This is true in writing novels based
on history (Biblical or secular) and Speculative (or Science Fiction). That’s
right, speculative fiction deals with the future, yet to be believable they
need facts (like the latest in scientific discoveries). When writing about
current events you also need facts.
In other words, research is virtually
always needed.
Additional Advice.
What I have found to be helpful is
that when I find an article or webpage that is loaded with information it is
best to use the Select All command and copy everything to a Word page. Later I
can highlight the relevant material and maybe discover more than I was
searching for in the first place. That way I always have information available on
my computer that I can look up whenever needed.
Searching the internet is one of the
easier things you can do. Just be careful.
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– – – – – – –
R Frederick
Riddle is the Editor of TR Writing
Services providing help to struggling and/or new
authors to write and publish their books. In addition he is the author of
several books and is best known for Christian Historical and Speculative
Fiction. For more information on him or his books visit his Amazon Authors Page. He is also
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