Appearing to know what you are talking about isn't too difficult; you can use the style of my comment above:

· bullet points

· links to external sources (especially Excel documents)

· an embedded graph

· quotes to suggest that you read the article

· an enumerated list

Actually feeling like you know what you are talking about is not so simple. I recommend following Feynman's advice:

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool.

Be honest and be humble. Don't say things you don't believe (without a good reason ), and don't believe things without good reason. You can't be wrong if you say you aren't sure. "Bend over backwards" to find out where you might be wrong.

The rest is just doing your homework. Research takes time, but that is how you find evidence. And it's so easy these days, at least if you are writing for Hubski and not a peer-reviewed journal. Half of my sources are on Wikipedia.

The result is that you feel increasingly ignorant in an increasingly complex world. But when you do draw conclusions, even though they are not certain, they are grounded in something more substantial than hearsay and chatter.