Writing a good article is easy if your research is solid and your opinions can be backed up by them. If your articles include facts, figures or research, you may need to back it up with sources. Here’s a simple guide on how to cite sources in a magazine article or newspaper article.
The first thing you need to know before understanding how to cite sources is when you really need to.
You don’t need to cite a source for every bit of fact presented in the article. What needs sources and what doesn’t?
What doesn’t need sources?
- If a fact has been derived from your personal experiences, first-hand research and opinions, it doesn’t need reference/source.
- Personal opinions where you feel may be controversial or not everyone’s should be written as “In my opinion,” etc.
- Anything that is common knowledge doesn’t need reference, like “Fashion has a great impact on culture of an era.”
What needs sources?
- Anything that is taken from someone else’s research or publication should be written with the source.
- Only research taken from a known publication, formally published source is to be mentioned. For the web, a good rule of thumb is to consider mostly those websites whose authority is higher than 45 (google how to find DA).
How to cite sources
- How to cite a source? Every publication has a different way of adding sources. At OpiniOwn.com, we have to mention sources right within the sentence, giving a link to the source.
- The best way is to write a sentence like, “According to an article published in The Washington Post titled How to Style, “Add quote”. See my article on fashion influencers on OpiniOwn.com to see different ways on how to cite sources and their links.
- If you want to mention the source from a not-well-known publication, it’ll be better to find the same fact published on a more credible platform.
- If you’ve taken a bit of info from a smaller website, or a blog, which you can’t find in any bigger publication or book, please remove that information, as it may not be reliable.
- Second-hand or publicly written forums like Wikipedia cannot be used as sources.