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Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [research]

Questions about how to conduct research, and how to incorporate your research into your writing.

Research is necessary for any type of writing - for accuracy; for color; in order to fully investigate the topic at hand; in order to understand the professional field and context one is operating in.

This tag is for all questions about how to conduct research for writing, and how to use that research in the writing itself.

Please note that specific research questions ("I'm writing about [X], does anybody know [detail about X]?") may be considered off topic (see: Is it appropriate to ask questions on specialist knowledge areas? ). Such questions are best answered by people knowledgeable in that particular topic, or communities devoted to such questions, such as Detail Oriented. At best, questions about identifying appropriate resources may be on-topic.

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How does a writer go about consulting experts?

I'm writing a story that has a medical condition as a central plot point, and now I have questions to ask a doctor. The problem is, I don't know one. I could make up the details, but I feel like the narrative will suffer for it. It occurs to me…
IchabodE
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How to google the ungoogleable?

This may be a silly question but I'm always a little nervous of doing my research. I'm toying with the idea of writing a crime story, several members of my family love detective stories and the idea appeals. This raises a concern, obviously in order…
Liath
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Book rankings by copies sold

Is there an official or unofficial source that ranks recent book releases (past 5 yrs) by number of copies sold? This would be a valuable tool to know what exactly readers prefer. Often I am tempted by a certain book but it helps to know what the…
Victor123
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Is there an expression that depicts how people tend to spill their secrets during late night conversation?

This is for a research paper. I want to say that at night secrets emerge, revealing the real person. In the case I am writing about, it would be that there would be a certain energy that comes out at night.
user63479
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How do I define something for a research paper that has a subjective defintion?

I'm tasked with writing a research paper and a lot of the evidence will be using "Cooking News Websites". My PI told me to think of ways to define what a "Cooking News Website" is. For example: https://cookingnewstoday.com/ A general news outlet…
John Smith
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How do I do literary research on an unresearched topic?

I asked this question earlier: What are the stages of The Guardian's Journey? In constructing a story, I plan on following the following patterns: The Hero's Journey: The Hero's Journey The Villain's Quest: The Villain's Quest My question is, what…
Mindblade16
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In terms of a research question, how many research articles is too few to answer it and how many research articles is too many?

I need to write a paper in 4 weeks with at least 7 annotated bibliographies and 3 of them from JSTOR or EBSCO. The word limit is 2000-2200.
Jessie
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What is the difference between a thesis statement and a research question?

I am writing a paper for a class and I am asked to include a thesis statement and a research question in the introduction, however, I feel like I don't have a clear picture of the difference between the two. I tried googling the question and I found…
justaquickquestion
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What's the best way to find every word commonly physically contiguous in real life to another word?

What's the best way to find every word commonly physically contiguous in real life to another word? By that, I mean every parts typically found on a ship or an ancient ship such as sail, mast, aft, rudder, etc? I can't find any good thesaurus that…
Sayaman
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How to define a research question when the output is a product, used in research?

My school requests a research question for a project. I came up with one like this: (different topic but very similar, due to NDA) What is the behavior of a bike, depending on speed, time in use and temperature? This question is about the…
2pietjuh2
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I want to write a spy story but severely lack knowledge. What and where should I research?

I have settled on writing a story about one who trains to be a government's spy then is sent on missions. While I feel capable of implementing emotion and symbolism (because the story's an allegory), I am uncertain how I'll implement the actual spy…
Ylahris
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Should I skip the research to get to the writing?

I have compiled about a hundred books to read before I start writing a book I have planned, and feel I'll never write the book if I take the two or so years to read all the books first. Should I skip the research entirely and just write the book?
user51969
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