Having a lot of knowledge about your topic certainly helps when it comes to article writing.
However, you may not always know much about a topic you will write about.
For example, if you need to quote research data, you need to do the research unless you have all those numbers in your brain already, which is very unlikely.
Internet research is a great way to educate yourself and gather enough information for a compelling and factual article.
That doesn't mean that you can't go off to a library to do your research.
I know people who prefer that for a break.
However, if you want a quick way to locate information, Internet can be very helpful.
The most obvious way to do Internet research is using search engines like Google or Yahoo.
While those sites always strive to improve their search results, it can be hard to sort out the good, the bad and the ugly.
Fortunately, there are plenty of free sources of good information online.
There are some portals that have everything, but you should also locate a few authority sites in your niche just to enrich your research.
Here are a few sites to get you started: 1.
Wikipedia.
org.
Free online encyclopedia contains millions of articles on various topics.
Wikipedia also has information in other languages and specific to countries.
This site is so popular because of contributions of its users.
2.
FactMonster.
com.
This is an online almanac, dictionary and encyclopedia.
This site is very helpful for students doing their homework research but of course the information is also useful to other purposes as well.
3.
HowStuffWorks.
com.
Contains hundreds of subjects, illustration and information on how everything works.
4.
Encyclopedia.
com.
This is another encyclopedia site.