Reliability: verifiable sources, citation data

The purpose of a report is to provide information, but not just any old information. The information must be reliable and relevant.

Reliable information comes from a trusted source. For many people, the word of a parent, a sibling, or a spouse is a trusted source. Unfortunately, we can not always rely on our family to be able to tell us everything we need to know. For example, one's parent may be prone to mistakes and other inaccuracies; or prone to bias; or simply unaware of the facts on a given topic. Consequently, there are public sources which we can trust. However, since not everyone agrees on the trustworthiness of public sources, it is important that any information which we may report from public sources be verifiable.

We cite our sources to make them verifiable to the reader. There are various styles of citation in use today, and we have a certain amount of freedom in making our own personal styles. Of course, there are some styles which are well known and which are highly recommended to young writers; you should study these styles, and adopt those aspects which you find useful. A good citation style can help the reader to verify information; however, whatever style may be adopted, certain facts must be given to the reader when citing a source. When we gather our information by interviewing, we identify the experts whom we quote or paraphrase by their names and professional affiliations. We identify documentary sources (e.g., books, films, CDs) by the usual bibliographic data:

  1. the document's creator (e.g., the author, editor, compiler, director)
  2. the document's title
  3. the document's public access (e.g., the city and name of a book publisher, the city and library of an archival text, the city and studio of a commercial film, the city and station and date of a radio broadcast, the city and label of a commercial music CD, the location of a sculpture)
In general, the bibliographic entry, which contains the essential citation data of a documentary source, should answer these questions:
  1. Who made the document?
  2. What's the document called?
  3. Where can I get this document? (Where have people seen or heard or touched this document?)

Types of Sources

Primary sources are the most immediate, uninterpreted records of events. Such documents include unedited photographs and audiovisual recordings, journalists' file reports, witness testimony and other court recordings, autobiographical reports, clinical reports, and scientific field reports.

Secondary sources are reports, descriptions, or analyses which rely on data from primary reports. Such documents are in an important sense "removed" from the actual events mentioned; they are greatly mediated by the collection and reporting of the primary data.

Standard references are sources which constitute a body of "received opinion", i.e., the knowledge and wisdom of prior thinkers on whose shoulders we stand. They are compilations of true facts, prudent opinions, and valid methods. Although they are generally models of good documents which scholars believe should be emulated, they also include models of "bad" documents which should not be emulated, as well as historical documents which should be remembered. These sources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, and almanacs; and they also include original works which have been seminal in defining fields of study or methods of analysis.


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