As of 2014, here is how I do research for a post. Depending on the post, I do some, none or all of the following:
First I search:
- Saved links – I have a computer file of post ideas, quotes and saved links to Internet pages. This is the general starting point.
- Internet search – mainly:
The Internet is a mile wide and an inch deep. It is also the biggest rumour mill in history. Knowing that, I go through maybe ten of the more interesting links.
- Kindle search – I have 399 books on my Kindle. I read through the references that look promising. Sometimes this leads to reading whole chapters of books, as can the:
- Book search – I have about a thousand printed books. I look through those that might have something.
- Library search – I rarely do this because it can take a week for a requested book to arrive.
- Word history – I look this up in:
- the Oxford dictionary,
- Google Books Ngram Viewer,
- Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Wikipedia – From experience I know that some of it is flat-out wrong. Sometimes I do not even look at the Wikipedia so that I do not wind up unconsciously repeating it. I read it mainly for background. For example, when I did a post on the Kingdom of Hawaii, I used it to read about the Dole family to get an idea of who they were.
- Abagond – my blog! I read related posts or search the comments and an outdated version of my blogroll.
- Google Images – where nearly all my images come from.
Then I read through all of that:
- Sometimes there is not enough for a single post.
- Sometimes there is enough for several related posts.
- Sometimes I find out that I have bitten off more than I can chew.
- Sometimes, to limit the scope of research to manageable proportions, I base a post on just one chapter of a book.
Then I let it marinate in my brain for a while. Sleeping helps.
Then I write.
When I am cutting the post down to 500 words, I think about what will get challenged in the comments and how I will defend it. This leads to a round of fact checking and getting rid of weaker passages.
Trusted sources: From the comments I get and from reading different sources I learn what I can trust:
- printed books, especially those by scholars;
- straight news – especially
- Democracy Now!,
The main thing I lack are good sources on Africa. Well, and a reading knowledge of Chinese, Arabic and Swahili.
Listing sources: My general practice is to not list my sources for a post. That might seem kind of nuts – it does to me right now writing this post – but my view has long been that I am not a scholar running a scholarly blog, so anything I can know, anyone can know.
– Abagond, 2014, 2015.
See also:
Good stuff!!!
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http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/12/whistleblower-exposes-cdc-coverup-of-the-connection-between-vaccines-and-autism-in-black-boys-picture-3073596.html our prob in US is we’re so colorized that we can’t see the demons for the melanin
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Interesting, so there is a method to your genius. I needed this post, definitely a nice diversion from the madness of the arbitrary killings of black lives. I wish I could do more.
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The Snoopy is too cute…
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I find that you are good on race relations in America and general subjects that touch the united States, but- and i´m being honest here- when it comes to the rest of the world especially when it comes to Africa, you seem to have a strong eurocentric leaning and perspective, that´s maybe why your posts about Africa seem so weak and you can´t strongly defend them against the gang of racists- conscious or unconscious- who haunt this blog.
A good start would be the general History of Africa, a set of eight volumes edited by the UNESCO about the history of the continent, which was pushed by the african countries in the 60´ when they became independent.
there´s a lot of websites about Africa, but a good start could be:
thisisafrica.me
africaisacountry.com or
pambazuka.org
even atlantablackstar.com have many good infos about the continent.
For pics about urban development in the Continent you could use skyscrapercity.com
A big problem is also that nearly half of the continent speak french, so there´s a language Barrier here since many interesting infos and books are being published in french, for example about the European transatlantic slave system and the arab slave system.
Lastly, there´s quite a number of black scholars in America who dedicated their work to Africa and the black world and experience in general. Like: john Henrik Clarke, Marimba Ani, Leonard Jeffries, tony smith, Amos Wilson etc… as there are many African scholars too. Maybe you should give it a try, if you are interested in knowing what black people have to say about their history and value their point of view.
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Dang, I meant it’s interesting to know how you put your blog together. Snoopy is cute to me too.
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@ Leo
I agree about the Eurocentrism of my posts on Africa, which I why I do not do more of them.
Thanks for the recommendations!
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Fantastic sources, here!!!
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I read daily and do not comment, since I don’t feel I’m qualified to speak to most of the issues you address. For what it’s worth, though, I’m almost always impressed with the quality of your research, as well as the quality of writing. Keep it up.
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Nice!
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Wow. Only few comments on this post. I have to say it took me a long time to get use to the unapologetic tone of abagond’s posts but there has never been any doubt about the quality – even if i think a minority of posts go too far. Keep up the good work. You’re a breath of fresh air. Oh, and yes you’re spot on about your African knowledge and I’m glad you’ve ceased posting about that topic. The few debates I’ve gotten into on this blog have been about Africa as I’m a direct descendent and it’s frustrating to hear a bunch of Americans wade into issues they know nothing about. But anyway, you’re an inspiration so thanks again for this blog
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I think some others have added their 2 cents in other posts on potential sources for Africa.
I was wondering what a reading knowledge of Chinese, Arabic and Swahili would do for you.
First of all, are you making sure that you read content in English (or other languages you can read – French, Spanish, Portuguese?) from the News Agencies whose main language is Chinese, Arabic and Swahili? You mentioned that you follow Al Jazeera. How about the (Xinhuashe) New China News Agency’s English news sources?
Admittedly, China’s news agency filters its content to satisfy the CCP, but it can still be a good resource to to challenge the western bias in AP and Reuters, or even arguably Al Jazeera. Most news media in China (eg, the People’s Daily, which is available in English) gets its a good chunk of its news feed from Xinhuashe (we’re talking 1.4 billion people). You can read the English versions of newspapers in Taiwan which do not get their news feed from Xinhuashe.
Hong Kong has both pro-Beijing, more balanced (but possibly self-censored) and unabashedly anti-govt, anti-tycoon sources, many of which are in English.
Have you identified any English sources from the Arabic speaking world which challenge Al Jazeera’s take on things?
I suppose what you would have serious problem with are stuff like blogs in other languages. What you need then is a devoted group of readers which help you scan that.
What is your take on Agence France-Presse?
Finally, it’s certainly not too late to to start learning how to read Arabic and Chinese.
Why Swahili, by the way (and not other languages originating from Africa)?
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Abagond,
Generally speaking you do write well and produce some really informative and researched posts. Notwithstanding the noteworthy comment by Leo above. I wondered about this:
While I know it can be tedious listing every source quoted or used. In the medium of the internet being used. One or two main reference links (if available) simply serve to endorse your efforts and time in doing that background research.
These are after all what you might follow up in any comments left by your commentators… 🙂
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A couple of reference links would be good.
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Keep up the good work. People can Google a topic or go to a reference library for more facts on the topics you cover.
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The potential is there but sadly u will never realize it.
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