Marketing With Articles: How to Document Sources Used in a Free Reprint Article

When writing offline research papers, there are specific resource citing guidelines for different types of sources (books, magazines, newspapers, etc). Unfortunately, internet content (such as free reprint articles) does not yet have any "official" documentation method that is standard.

One thing still holds true though--whenever you get information from another source, whether it is an offline book, magazine, or newspaper or an online piece of content (blog post, online article, website, etc), you need to give credit to that outside source.

How Should You Cite A Source In A Free Reprint Article?

If you like, when marketing with articles, you can indicate a source in the same fashion as you would if you were writing an offline research paper.

That is perfectly acceptable, but what if you don't feel the need to be that formal? What other ways can you indicate a source in an online article?

If your outside source is from a piece of online content, then it is good form to state the author of the piece and his or her website. If you are specifically quoting someone else's online content, it's a good idea to provide a link to the web page where the original quote came from.

If you are using an offline book, magazine or newspaper as a source, then tell the author's name and the title of the piece, and perhaps the organization that the person is writing for. You may need to get even more specific--if you are quoting a newspaper, you can tell the date that the original piece was published as well.

When Is It Necessary To Cite A Source?

=> If you use another person's work in part of your research in preparing your article and your article contains ideas that are unique to that other piece, then you will want to give credit to your resources.

=> If you quote a portion of someone else's work in your article, you need to give credit. (It would also be a good idea to contact the original author to ask his permission to quote from his work.)

=> If the ideas you are expressing in your article are strongly influenced by someone else's ideas or work, you should give the other person credit.

It goes without saying that it is not acceptable to find content on the internet and "reuse" it without giving credit. As stated above, some authors would even prefer that you not get any quotes from their online content, even with an attribution. That is their prerogative and why it is always a good idea to ask first.

Here's a tip to make sure you don't "accidentally" copy someone else's work:

Unless you are doing a legitimate research piece, it is a good idea not to look at your colleagues' articles for "inspiration" in writing your own articles. Your articles are meant to show your own expertise and ideas, so try to pull from your own knowledge as much as possible.

If you do happen to use another person's work in writing your article, be sure to give credit where credit is due.


------

For more info on how you can use article marketing to reach thousands of potential prospects for your website, go now to http://www.submityourarticle.com/report . Steve Shaw is an article marketing expert and founder of the popular article distribution service http://www.submityourarticle.com used by thousands of business owners.