Song of the Day: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vMUvCYTtmM
Hello all! It’s Friday so it’s time for Paper Hangover’s weekly Friday Fives! If you feel like participating hop over and post a link to your Friday Fives post. We writers are always having to do research on the subjects we write about, and in the spirit of that we’re talking research tools today! This Week’s Question:
What are your FIVE favorite research tools?
1. Google– I heart it and it’s my favorite research tool. I pretty much google everything and it’s the first source I go to if I need to do research.
2. Wikepedia– Probably not the most reliable, but hey, it usually gets the job done. Plus it’s pretty fast.
3. Twitter– I talk about twitter all the time because its power is righteous. If you have a question you can tweet it, and almost instantly, answers come pouring in. Other writers are also tweeting and re-tweeting about resources and articles. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned about writing on twitter alone.
4. Merriam-Webster and Thesaurus.com – I’m always looking words up or using the thesaurus to find other words. Sometimes I have to look up terms too. I also like their word of the day tweets.
5. Blogger– Duh! I learn so much from my writer friends on blogger. Their posts are always helpful and then there are links galore on almost everyone’s blogs. If you’re trying to research anything writer related, or looking for writing resources, you can find it on blogger.
What about you? What are your favorite research tools?
Hmm… Looks like Blogger ate my comment. Google was my number one too and Wikipedia my number two. I heard somewhere that Wikipedia is more accurate than a regular encyclopedia because it's open source. (Not sure if that's true or not though.)
I Google everything first too! I like the freeonline dictionary too and my critique group forum too.
good choice with the thesaurus. I'm always so amazed by all I've learned from other bloggers. Have a good Friday.
You are so right about Twitter, and I never thought to use it in this way before. I'll have to try it next time I need to know something crazy!
YES, you are so right about Twitter! And Google, whee — only I use DuckDuckGo. 😀
I heavily use Google and Wikipedia. And of course bloggers give me so much info on writing and publishing. Also, what's cool is that their varied experiences leads to a great wealth of information.
I don't know what I'd do without Google. 😉 You're right though that Twitter and Blogger are great places to research and find info, especially if it has to do with the publishing business or querying.