This happens again and again on the news blog. I receive a fascinating article about events in a distant land, news I would never hear about by flipping on CNN. Yet, fascinating as it is, there are no sources cited, and it seems unlikely that the information was obtained through a personal interview.
So I ask for sources. "It's all over the news," comes the reply, "obviously, that's where I heard it." This is enough to absolve writers of the need to cite anything? -- WRONG!
The story may have been so widely covered that you can't even remember where you got all the information jostling around in your head. So it seems perfectly legal and good to pull it out of a file in your own brain. It's your own experience that taught you these things. Or so it may seem. Check here to learn more about copyright.
But even if this were true, even barring copyright issues, it's not good practice to leave out citations. These are some reasons why it is still important to cite sources that you pull from memory:
1. Not Everyone Has Heard It
Just because it's not news to you, doesn't mean it's not news to someone else across the globe. When you're dealing with the Worldwide Web, it doesn't matter if everyone where you live has heard it. It's not common knowledge across the globe. People want to know where you get your information.
We all hear gossip and see an influx of information fly across our news feeds daily, hourly, by the minute. We even call ourselves the "information age." All of this may make us feel well informed. But...Are we? Have you ever seen anything online you thought to be true, only to find out later it was not? Or have you ever misremembered something you thought for sure was true?
If you are writing strictly out of hearsay, who's to say you didn't get something wrong? Citing sources helps you fact check yourself. Which leads me to my next point.
3. Readers Will Trust You More
In this age of false information being passed around social media, source checking is vital if you want credibility as a writer. Even if you have the memory of an elephant, and supposedly don't need to look at sources, the easier you make it to fact check your writing, the more accurate you're likely to be, and the more you can be trusted.
4. Google's SEO Algorithms Will Trust You More
Do you want people to read your article? Then you will need to gain the trust, not only of your readership, but of search engines. One thing that the Google search engine loves is authority.
Who are you to say such and such has happened?
Google doesn't know. Google is a robot. What Google does know is that some sites get a lot of traffic and are therefore trusted. If you link to trusted websites, Google will be more likely to trust you and your article will be more likely to be viewed, picked up, and maybe even make the top of Google search results! How's that for a testament of your writing skill?
An Easy Thing that Goes a Long Way
Citing sources is easy online. All it takes is to copy and paste a hyperlink to the source. Even a mention of the source along with the hyperlink is nice sometimes. That way, readers can be extra clear on where the information is from. It is a small thing you can do but it makes you much more credible.
Very informative and useful post.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! I'm so glad you found it useful.
DeleteAnd in addition to all these points, as writers, we need to be aware of copyright. If we heard or read it somewhere else, it's up to us to give the source credit. We wouldn't want people using something we wrote and claiming it as their own, so we should remember to give others credit for their words.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, and yes! I couldn't agree with you more!
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