On Lisa Gold’s new research blog, you’ll learn that Samuel Johnson didn’t actually say “The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.” Although he should have, it’s a lot more pithy that what he did actually say… which you can read for yourself in Lisa’s post.
If you’re a writer, or a research junkie, check out the blog and get in on the ground floor — there is already a pile of useful information, with the promise of much more to come. Lisa is a research specialist with years of experience and a lot of good pointers for finding those needles in the great big haystack of the internet. Next time I don’t know where to find something, I’m betting that she will.
Since we are on the net and blogging, I wonder what you have to say about “keywords” and the SEO approach to putting it out there?
My own take is that I am saying what I want with as much accuracy and grace as I can gather at the time. Trying to write and plugin the correct keywords, bold face, and underlines so a bot from Google or wherever can “read” and then note my thoughts is anti-writing to me.
So in that sense is the use of a thesaurus though from time to time I do pick up my dust paperback Roget.
And of course, we have all noted the recent problem Mr. McSame had via his Georgia comments.
Being on the net and having Google right there to aid in the research is addictive. I use it but make sure I thoroughly digest the information and if possible cross-reference it before spitting it out as my own pap.
As for the reference tools your blog pointed me toward, I found it interesting that she preferred the book to the online versions. But then so do I.
Like you, I don’t worry so much about whether Google has completely sliced, diced and cross-indexed me. Perhaps when I’m blogging regularly for Humans At Work I’ll worry more about it. Or maybe not (grin).
I use online reference tools more and more these days, but if I want a deep look into a particular word, for example, I’ll always go first to Nicola’s Oxford English Dictionary. I actually never use a thesaurus at all. If a word isn’t in my head, I’m not sure I want it in my writing, you know? (Big generalization, but…)