Loraine Page - Super Searcher, Author, Scribe: Successful Writers Share Their Internet Research Secrets

Anyone who has visited my office can attest that I am an expert on search. Id have to be; how else could I find anything buried in those stacks of papers, those arrays of strewn file folders, that grand memo and manuscript organizer I call my floor?

I look up from that floor at the Internet browser on my computer screen and see figuratively the same thinga jumbled morass of facts and information and comments and notes. The Web seems unfathomable and unorganizable, just like my paper system. It isnt called the World Wide Filing Cabinet, after all.

But, just as with my paper filing system, haphazardly organized and unfindable are not synonymous. You just gotta know where to look.

More importantly, you must know how to look.

Thats why I enjoyed reading Super Searcher, Author, Scribe. Theres no one how in searching the Internet (nor my piles of papers, for that matter). Different approaches, different ways of thinking, different source portals all come into play, and the writers interviewed herein exemplify the many differences and demonstrate different search strategies and philosophies. Look over their shoulders as they conduct their workits a great way to learn.

My primary search tip lies in extending my observation about knowing where and how to look. For the writer, the most important element of search is knowing what to do with what you find. Ask yourself these questions:

Do you trust what you find on the Web? A recent poll indicated that the U.S. public places less trust in information from the Internet than they do in information from magazines, newspapers, and television. I agree with placing less trust in Internet informationnonprofessional editors put far more unfiltered and unquestioned info out onto the Web than wed like to believe possible. Im not implying that all info out there is unreliable (the work of professional editors proliferates on the Web, too), but as is good journalistic practice in general, dont just find itconfirm it.

Does your manuscript need what you find on the Web? And more importantly, does your reader need it? Many writers feel pressure to include all the information they find during their research. It was a lot of work finding this stuff! I cant let it go to waste! Yet, its a bigger waste when irrelevant or redundant research finds its way into print. I believe it was Frank Lloyd Wright who said, You have got to stop thinking that just because you worked very hard on something, that is reason enough to think it has some worth. (Did he really say that? Hey, I found it on the Webit must be true!)

So, you as a writer are faced in this medium with the same challenges you face with all others. Get the facts, get the facts right, and communicate the important facts to your reader. Solid Internet search strategies will help you in the first two steps. The third step is up to you.

(And when you finally find what you need, do what I do. Print out a copy, throw it on a pile somewhere over near the ficus tree, and pray you can find it later.)

William Brohaugh
New Media Director, F&W Publications, WritersDigest.com
Former editor of Writers Digest magazine and Writers Digest Books