Issues worth arguing about almost always become a topic of conversation. Increasingly, that conversation takes place online, through blogs and social media sites. These resources are designed specifically to support exchanges among writers and readers. By following these online conversations, you can not only learn more about your subject but also discover what other writers and readers think about it.

Blogs consist of chronologically ordered entries on a Web site and most closely resemble entries in a diary or journal. Blog entries usually include a title and a text message and can also incorporate images, audio, video, and other types of media. Many entries provide links to other pages on the Web. Blogs allow readers to post their responses to entries, so a single blog entry might be accompanied by several — sometimes hundreds — of responses.

You can find blogs that address your subject by turning to sites such as Technorati (technorati.com) and Google blogs (google.com/blogsearch). Read more about blogs in Chapter 12.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide opportunities to identify people who share your interest in an issue. By searching these sites, you can identify individuals who might be knowledgeable about an issue or have been affected by it. If you have an account with a social media site such as Facebook, you can use its search tools to locate individuals and groups that share your interest. Facebook’s Graph Search, for example, allows you to create complex searches of Facebook members and events.

Even though these resources can be helpful as you explore potential issues for your essay, take the time to learn more about the conversations you find online. You can locate print and electronic sources through your library’s catalog and through Web search sites and directories. If the sources you collect leave you with unanswered questions, you can conduct additional searches, talk to a librarian, or collect information through observations or interviews. Depending on your issue, you might also want to search for government documents.