Establishing Ethos: The Importance of Searching and Researching

Research is an important tool to enhance and refine your writing and magnify your skills to say what you need to say in a successful way. There are lots of different genres where research guidelines are slightly more specialized; this short post will provide a general overview. A list:

#1 Educate Yoself

Okay so this is a big one. There are two things that no one has ever said: “I just want to be broke forever,” and “If only I could be dumber.” It is evident that the essential human functions have much to do with getting rich and getting smart. Research is going to be important in this respect. When you do your research in a piece of writing, you will be able to give yourself a broader understanding of whatever it is that you’re writing about. Furthermore, you’ll be able to give other people a better understanding of whatever it is that you’re writing about. If you can achieve both of these mega feats whilst writing, said writing (and you) will be that much more respected. Which brings me to point #2.

#2 #writingcreds

In order to make yourself seem more like an authority instead of a rando blogger, you’ll need to do research to lend credibility to your writing. You will seem more informed and you will be able to understand both sides of an argument, if you’re presenting one, in order to bolster your side and prove that your side is the right side all the more effectively. It also demonstrates that you did your homework and made the effort to seek information from other authorities. Thusly, by looking things up, you will understand that “some speakers and writers regard thusly as a pointless synonym for thus, and they avoid it or use it only for humorous effect.” And then you won’t use the word thusly. And you’ll be better for it, ordained ethos by the writing gods.

#3 Lemme See Ya Skill

This may sound strange but hear (read?) me out. Researching random things to get a grasp of how to research is also important. And maybe it’s not so random because you have several papers or poems to write for any number of classes. Either way, research things on the reg so you have a better sense of finding important, useful information quickly and putting your findings to use in a cohesive piece of writing. Sharpening your researching skills will strengthen your writing.

#4 Uncouth Copy Kitties

DO NOT PLAGARIZE. That’s a simple enough concept. Unless you haven’t done your research and you’re writing something (perhaps even accidentally) that someone else has already written or even kind of written. So do research so you are not uninformed and so you do not plagiarize, accidentally or not.

#5 A Dive Out of Your Own Mind and into the Hive Mind

Listen, you gotta get outta your heads, people. Sometimes in order to do this you have to do things like therapy, or LSD, or research. Here we will explore the research option. If you do research, you can gain many perspectives other than your own. Not only that but you can also delve deeper into your piece of writing to better understand what you can say to say what you need to say. The hive mind can be boring and mainstream, yes, repulsive even. But it can be helpful and relevant. And you can always learn from what someone else is saying about your topic or about gouda cheese, whichever.