5 Research Sources You Should Never Use

Research quality depends on whether a source can support an exact claim. Search results, anonymous posts and summary pages can help locate leads, but important statements need an identifiable author, evidence, context and a path back to the original material.

• Why it matters: a polished page can still misstate evidence, omit context or repeat an error from another source.
• How it works: check authorship, publication date, purpose, cited evidence and the source's relationship to the claim.
• Zoom in: trace statistics and quotations to the study, document, transcript or dataset that produced them.
• Reality check: an anecdote can illustrate an experience, yet it rarely establishes a general fact on its own.

As many freelance writers know, writing a deep and comprehensive article usually takes hours of conscientious research. This is especially true when the writer is producing articles that require in-depth or niche content. At times many writers will have to dig very deep to find the appropriate resources and deliver accurate and timely information, and some may wish to cut corners by using whatever resources they can find. However, no matter how desperate a freelance writer gets for new information there are a few resources that a freelance writer should never use.

1. Wikipedia

Many freelance writers today consider Wikipedia an authoritative resource but there are a few good reasons why a writer should never use Wikipedia. Wikipedia articles can be written and modified by anyone, and this means that the information may not always be accurate. The information is also sometimes biased. However, the most compelling reason not to use Wikipedia is simply because a writer does not have to. Writers can follow the source links at the bottom of every Wikipedia article to find authoritative resources that are fact checked and peer reviewed. Wikipedia can be an excellent way to find these resources, but it should not be used as a resource in itself.

2. About.com

Freelance writers that use About.com heavily will find that they are simply not producing valuable content. This is because About.com articles rely heavily on internet searches for the bulk of their information. About.com articles usually don’t cite their resources properly, either, which means that a freelance writer cannot verify any information within it. Freelance writers that use About.com for their information form a sort of Mobius closed loop system in which all freelance writers begin regurgitating the same information without any known source or verification.

3. Message Boards

Message boards and other anecdotal reports should never be used for information, regardless of the way in which the information is presented. There are message boards that post regular news articles and excerpts but without going directly to the source the freelance writer has no way of knowing if these articles have been modified by the posters. Freelance writers that find valuable information on message boards need to go back to the original sources for verification. This also applies to user-generated answer websites such as Ask.com.

One thing that gets overlooked is how easy it is to slip into convenient habits when deadlines creep up. You see a juicy thread with thirty people claiming the same fact, and suddenly it feels “safe” to just roll with it. But if you’re not careful, those tiny shortcuts snowball. Before long, your work ends up propping up a sort of telephone game of misinformation that somehow sneaks into otherwise reputable corners of the web. It’s weirdly common—I’ve caught myself halfway through a paragraph, realizing I can’t actually confirm where a piece of info came from in the first place.

And let’s be honest, a lot of these message boards or answer sites repackage rumors as facts just because it keeps the threads lively. There’s a strange comfort in seeing the same anecdote reposted a hundred times, but that doesn’t make it true. It’s a bit like repeating an urban legend—fun at parties, less great in an article you’re signing your name to. The temptation to treat these sources as a shortcut is real, especially when your research time is edging toward dinner, but the risk just isn’t worth it.

4. SEO Sites

Freelance writers today need to be extremely careful about inadvertently using sources that appear reputable but actually aren’t. There are many websites today that appear to be journals or news publications but are actually entirely fictitious. These websites are used for search engine optimization purposes and keyword bombing. A close perusal of these websites will show that all the articles are geared to a specific purpose. While freelance writers may very well find themselves writing these articles, they should do their best not to cite them as resources.

5. Yourself

Many freelance writers, especially when they have been in the business for a long time, will find themselves writing off-the-cuff articles that rely on their own internalized knowledge. This may significantly speed up the research process, but it is dangerous for many reasons. Many freelance writers that use themselves as a primary source may not realize that their knowledge is flawed or that the topic has changed significantly since they last researched it. They may also find themselves repeating prior articles too closely because they are simply repeating things they have already done. It is very important for freelance writers to do unique research on their articles even if they feel they know the topic very well.

Research is often considered the least fun component to freelance writing, but it doesn’t have to be a headache. Once a freelance writer gets into the habit of finding and using authoritative sources they will find that it becomes much easier to get the information they need faster. They will also find themselves writing content that is far more fulfilling and valuable.