How to Research a Blog Post by Annotating Source Material Online

Research for a blog post usually means reading a dozen pages and remembering a fraction of them. Annotating sources as you read, with notes on the page itself, keeps the useful parts and where they came from.

1. Find good sources

• Primary sources: original research, official data, documentation and laws.
• Expert sources: people with real experience or credentials in the topic.
• Recent sources, especially for fast-moving topics.
• Different viewpoints, so the post isn't one-sided.

A blog repeating a statistic isn't a source for it; follow the link to the original.

2. Decide what to note

• Facts and figures, with the date and where they came from.
• Quotes worth citing, kept short.
• Explanations that make something click.
• Disagreements between sources.
• Your own thoughts and questions, marked clearly as yours.

3. Annotate as you read

Sticky Notes Anywhere adds notes directly to web pages. Notes are saved for that page, and a side panel lists all of them with search, so you can find every note tagged "STAT" or "QUOTE" across your sources. Notes are stored on your computer, and you can export a backup.

For academic work, Zotero saves full citations, and Hypothesis lets groups annotate pages together.

A simple tagging scheme

• STAT: a number to check and cite.
• QUOTE: wording worth quoting.
• EXPLAIN: a clear explanation to learn from.
• CHECK: a claim you need to verify.
• ME: your own idea or question.

4. Keep citation details

For each source, note the title, author or organization, date and link. Pages change, so for important claims save a copy or check whether the Internet Archive has one.

5. Check claims

• Does the number appear in the original source, with the same meaning?
• Is it still current?
• Do other reliable sources agree?

6. Pull it together

When you've read enough, gather your notes in one document and group them by sub-topic. That becomes your outline. See outlining from research.

Knowing when to stop

Stop when new sources mostly repeat what you already have. More research rarely improves a post as much as clearer writing does.

Write in your own words

Notes are for understanding, not copying. Explain ideas in your own words and credit sources for facts and quotes. See annotating articles and OneNote Web Clipper vs Sticky Notes Anywhere.