As content writers, we have a constant influx of information to sieve through so that we stumble upon pieces that can fit into a project we’re working on. The most important and time-consuming part of the writing process is finding information that’s most relevant to our topic, ploughing through it and organising all our findings in a way that we can easily look it up.
In one word, it’s research. It’s the key, the first step to creation because it lays the foundation for ideas to spring forth. Here’s how you up your game when doing research for a topic.
As nice and easy as it is to use Google and Ctrl + F to find what we’re after, keep in mind that you may need to open a book once in a while.
Improving your consumption
There was a big hype about speed reading being the answer a decade ago. However, its popularity soon died out, and people have come to agree that moving your eyes across pages at above 700 words a minute will generally give you much lower comprehension than if you just read at your regular comfortable pace. You might read quickly but understand or recall nothing if you jump into speed reading. You can try ZapReader and that might help.
As nice and easy as it is to use Google and Ctrl + F to find what we’re after, keep in mind that you may need to open a book once in a while. Books can be daunting, we know and we understand your fear. Especially because content writers find it easy to get lost in a book. Here’s what you can do to improve your research with real books:
- Use the contents section at the start of a book to narrow down your search and jump to relevant information faster.
- Use the index found at the end of a book (not all books have indexes though books for reference often do) and pick the word that’s most relevant to your research. Eg. If you were looking for ‘icing’, you might look under ‘C’ in the index for ‘cake’ and find icing on the same page.
- Note down page numbers for topics so that you can return to those pages quickly for double-checking your work.
The speed of your reading and research will increase with experience. You don’t need to keep guessing about getting faster if you just adopt these simple reading habits. And as you read more, your mind will start adapting to the flow of sentences.
In order to make getting fast, faster – you can work towards doing a few things automatically when you’re reading. These smart reading habits will allow you to stay on top of your research while continuing to absorb your material deeply and usefully. But wait, there’s more that will help you be a better content writer.
Don’t keep the voice in your head for topics that will bore you. It doesn’t need intonation.
Read with your eyes, not the ears
When we read, many of us enunciate the words with our mouths, audibly or inaudibly. In order to read our fastest, we need to not only get rid of this habit but also stop ‘sub-vocalizing’ what we’re reading, meaning saying it in our heads as our eyes move over the words. You might hear a tiny voice narrating this inside your head right now.
While keeping the voice in your head is fine for reading more complex things to yourself like philosophy or good literature, it might not be suitable for reading things that a bit more cut and dry. In our line of work, we often find ourselves dealing with mounds of less-than-stellar and, at many times, dry writing. Don’t keep the voice in your head for topics that will bore you. It doesn’t need intonation.
Silencing this inner monologue and just identifying words and phrases with our eyes often allows us to move at speeds much faster than the limited cadence of your voice in your head. This might feel difficult in the beginning, but it becomes as simple as turning off a switch with a bit of diligent practice.
Don’t let filler take up your time
You only live so long so you must remember that your time is precious. Get to the meat of the matter and don’t waste your time on filler information that doesn’t aid your writing.
Carefully Choose
Save yourself loads of time and effort by reading very selectively. This doesn’t mean being stuck in analysis paralysis on what book or chapter is worthy of your attention. If you get bored reading repetitive parts of a book, skip ahead to the ends of the paragraphs. Or read the introduction and conclusion of a book. Look at the contents and read only the chapters that jump out at you. If the first ten pages of a book don’t capture your attention, chuck it and get a better source.
Grease the Groove
Cultivating a habit of consistently devouring information and researching for projects including the never-ending project of life will make it easier to get to what interests you and identifying what will be useful. The best way to get better at push-ups is by doing push-ups. You’ll find your reading speed and comprehension go up the more you push yourself to read.
Building your tree of knowledge
There are various methods to collect and compile all the useful facts, quotes, anecdotes and wisdom we come across. We generally read and write about related themes, like when working on a long project – a post, series, a book, a personal blog. Having an efficient way of recalling things we’ve read years ago is incredibly useful and can open up many possibilities for creating content. Whether digital or physical, a database that you can maintain regularly and refer to in times of need is perhaps one of the best practices you can engage in.
Your mind forms a connection and when you remember the one you remember the other.
A good writer tends to have a good memory for locating information. Here are some tips in coming up with an effective reference database:
Build a stronger reference network inside your brain. When reading new concepts and ideas try to think of how they relate to things you already know. Like if you’re reading the economic practices Adam Smith recommended in his Wealth of Nations, you could contrast them to the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and see how the policies implemented in Soviet Russia failed. This way, your mind forms a connection and when you remember the one you remember the other.
One of the most loathsome and challenging aspects of the job is staying on top of your deadlines.
Highlight important lines and paragraphs you want to look up later. If you have an e-reader, you can simply bookmark pages. While using paperback books, you can use a highlighter, and dog-ear pages to come back to. Writing your observations, comments and criticism on the margins of the pages or attaching sticky notes is also a good idea. When you’re done with a source, make notes of all you read and keep the summaries safe. Whether in text files on the cloud, such as Google Drive or as written or typed pages in a physical folder.
Research is time-consuming, and as content writers, one of the most loathsome and challenging aspects of the job is staying on top of your deadlines. Less time spent writing is more time spent watching House of Cards reruns. Or whatever is happening on Amazon Prime these days.
This blog can be addictive. We know you must be craving more so here’s more:
This article was written by Sienna Thibault. If you want to contact her for feedback, send her an email.
