… do your research

… wikipedia has unequivocally earned its title of being my main squeeze. What started as an innocent encounter years ago flourished into a beautiful, balanced relationship; I give an article enough of my time and in turn get an ever growing basis of information and links, literally and cognitively. The select words and/or phrases that are hyperlinked in an article are not done so arbitrarily; each notion is integrally connected to the next. So when I read one article, I read about four, five and so on in order to illustrate a multi-dimensional picture of the original topic at hand.

From there comes the side chick, Google. Wiki treats me just fine, but sometimes you need to hear it all, and more, from elsewhere. In these instances, choose your sources and facts wisely; don’t get burned. Again, the premise is to click links to further make the connections and confirm them but don’t stray too far from home. Do enough concise research to get a clear understanding of whatever it is you are writing about be it a simple adjective about the subject of a sentence or basic facts related to a theme/setting that carries throughout the entire piece.

The last one invited to the party, that usually gets the last minute, late night phone calls, would be the dictionary. When every word matters and the wrong ones usually resonate more than the correct ones, word and fact selection is key. You are speaking authoritatively to an audience and someone in the audience may actually know more than you do about something; don’t label yourself as the misinformed one of the group. Questionable is not a good descriptive word for one’s writing.

Always try to remember: no one likes a babbling idiot, but a babbling idiot speaking a noticeably foreign language is far worse than the former …