Listen closely. You’re going to have to come closer than that. Closer … Shhh, can you do me a favour and keep a secret? Don’t tell anyone but I am about to reveal how pro-bloggers never run out of writing ideas!. How they are constantly overflowing with fresh ideas and stay on the cutting edge.
Okay, enough of the theatrics (hey, I was bored …) – time to get straight to the point.. My top tip for keeping a constant flow of writing ideas for your persuasive essay to is to use Google News and Blogs.
For this exercise, head on over to google.com. Across the top left hand side of the page you will see a menu. I can see Web, Images, Maps, News, Video, Gmail and More. Click on News.
If you have never been here before, this is Google’s news page. This page will be full of news headlines and is fully customizable. If you are looking for general writing ideas, this page is packed full of goodies. But for this exercise I am going to assume you have a rough idea on what you want to write about. My topic will be solar power.
Enter your chosen topic into the Google search bar and hit Search News.
The page that loads will now have a series of news articles from around the world that relate to your phrase. By default, the articles are sorted by relevance. You can sort by date using the choices at the top right of the page.
Scroll down the results. Do you see anything interesting for your research? In my results, the first 4 are –
Solar panels – beware of counterfeits (Energy Matters – Australia)
LG announces solar powered mobile (Techradar – UK)
Bharat hot on solar cookers, new energy (Times of India – India)
Dow at work on solar power shingles (Toronto Star – Canada)
It would not take you long to amass several articles that will give you some great ideas.
Another hot source of writing ideas on this page is the Google Blog search. In the left hand side menu you will find the menu heading Blogs. Click on this.
The Blog search is similar to the News search, but this shows recent blog entries from the web. I can see blog entries on DIY solar and cutting coal use with solar power. News will give you some good factual information while blogs can be more opinionated. Both are great places to start your search.
Warning – News feeds and blogs are great places to do research. Don’t copy what you find here as your own work. Duplicate content filters will spot that in the blink of an eye. What you can do is use the research as guidance. What is your opinion on what you have read? Write about that instead.
Photo by Terje Skjerdal
