A Note on Information Citing

I've noticed a pattern around the site lately, particularly when debates are involved. A number of people make claims and state them as facts without citing their sources. Most of us (myself included) are guilty of doing this at least from time to time, and will generally provide the source if/when called out on it without much of an issue.

A number of people, however, seem to refuse to cite their sources. Some have even hone as far as getting irate (or very nearly so), when called out about it. It seems, though, that these people get upset because they don't understand the purposes of source-citing. They think that it's only there so the readers don't have to do any research themselves.

This, however, is simply not the case. While it does allow for someone to become more informed, there are other, more important reasons for citing sources.

Plagiarism -- When using sources that aren't your own, especially if you claim them as such, you risk being accused of plagiarism, which is a federal offense. This is something that's been drilled into most of our heads since middle school. They don't do it just to make our lives miserable. While you may not go to jail over it, you can potentially face a number of fines (and if the RIAA is any indication about what is considered a reasonable fine for misuse of intellectual property, you're looking at a year's salary there, at least). It can also discredit you as a writer. Remember, blogs can come back to haunt you later on...the Internet has a hard time forgetting.

Where You've Gotten Your Information -- When people ask you where you got your information, they're asking for exactly that: where you got your information. Yeah, they can look it up themselves, but they can't guarantee that they're looking at the same site or in the same book that you are. The idea here is to verify your information with theirs and cross reference your sites with what they find. If you have a fit about them wanting to see your sources, then you come off as potentially hiding something, or not really knowing what you're talking about. Both of which are detrimental to your life as a writer and/or blogger.

Are you afraid that they'll pick apart your sources and invalidate them? Well, this is the Internet. People are cruel and cynical to begin with, give them a sense of anonymity and that cruelty and cynicism skyrockets. They will pick your sources apart, they will try to discredit them, but at the same time, they will respect you more if you took the time to find unbiased sources (in other words, if you pulled your information about firearms from the Brady Campaign website, or a derivative website, then they will discredit it, because the site is known to be heavily biased; if you pulled your information from Harvard Law school, however, you'll be less likely to get picked apart).

Now, there are times where you can't really give a distinct source or link, such as getting information from a TV show. There, at least give the title of the show and what station you found it on. I posted an update about a recent school shooting a few weeks back, for example. I mentioned specifically that I was updating as I was watching the news and therefore couldn't link an update because one didn't yet exist on the Internet. Even something like that, depending on the context, is sufficient.

Now, is it really so hard to copy the URL out of the address bar and stick it in your post, perhaps noting what came from where? Is it really any worse than fighting with other bloggers about where you got your sources? No? I didn't think so.

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