Attributive Tags and Hyperlinks
- give credit to the original author or authors;
- indicate which information in sentences and paragraphs comes from your sources;
- allow readers to check your sources to see if you have represented them accurately and to read more on the topic themselves.
Conveying Credibility
In-text Citations and Your Credibility as a Writer and Researcher
References to sources in the text of your document show your work as a researcher. In order to enhance your own credibility as a researcher and writer:
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Use Credible and Relevant Sources
- Use sources that will be obviously credible, such as fact-checked articles from The New York Times or the The Wall Street Journal.
- Use field-specific sources that are clearly relevant to your topic, such as Pet Boarding and Daycare Magazine, though for some audiences you may have to justify their credibility (in this example you could explain that this is the only trade publication for this industry).
Introduce Your Sources With Authority
- Lead with the name of the publication for the first citation from a source. This information is usually more meaningful to your reader, which will quickly establish credibility.
- Research the author, and, if relevant, state their credentials.
For example, an opinion piece by someone named Janet Morrison isn’t instantly credible, even if it appears in a major newspaper. However, if you add that Morrison has 20 years of relevant experience in epidemiology and virology research at Harvard, as well as a Ph.D. in epidemiology and virology from the University of Michigan, her opinion piece on wearing masks during a pandemic becomes a lot more credible.
First References vs. Subsequent References
Always provide detailed information about the source the first time you use it. Keep subsequent attribution brief.
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First Use of Reference
The first time you use a source in a document, establish its credibility and/or relevance to your point, if it won’t be self-evident to readers.
Example
Ashley Cai, reporting for The Wall Street Journal, states that the sudden energy demands of AI is slowing the shift to renewable energy and extending use of natural gas and coal.
Subsequent References
Once you’ve established your source’s credibility, be as efficient as possible with attribution.
Example
Cai also notes that use of coal had declined “over the past 20 years as it … struggled to compete with cheaper natural gas and renewable projects.”
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Useful Verbs
| acknowledges | comments | endorses | reasons |
| adds | compares | grants | recommends |
| admits | confirms | illustrates | refutes |
| agrees | counters | implies | reports |
| argues | declares | insists | responds |
| asserts | denies | notes | suggests |
| believes | disputes | observe | supports |
| claims | emphasizes | point out | writes |
Example Sentences
Note how the approach to attribution changes in the following examples; one emphasizes the publication in which the source appeared and the type of article, the other emphasizes the expertise of the author.
- Carly D. Kenkel claims, in an opinion essay for the New York Times, that the best way to save coral reefs is to preserve them in aquariums and to freeze coral eggs and sperm for “future IVF efforts.”
- Carly D. Kenkel, professor of marine biology and the principal investigator at the USC Cnidarian Evolutionary Ecology Lab, states that her research shows that the best way to save coral reefs is to preserve them in aquariums and to freeze coral eggs and sperm for “future IVF efforts.”
Archiving & Embedding Hyperlinks
For emails and other digital documents, hyperlinks provide readers with a direct, convenient way to access the sources you’re citing.
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Adding Hyperlinks in Your Word Processing App
In most word-processing applications (including Outlook, Gmail, Word, and Google Docs), you can create formatted hyperlinks by highlighting the text you want to make into a link, right-clicking/control-clicking, choosing the “link” or “add link” option, and pasting in the appropriate URL.
Choosing what to Hyperlink within Sentences
You can hyperlink the attributive verb, the name of the publication, the title of the article, or the names of the authors, depending on which information you want to highlight. Because hyperlinking changes the text color and can add an underline, whatever language is linked will stand out to the reader. Use your hyperlinks to emphasize words that will reinforce your message with your reader.
- Raffaella Sadun, Joseph Fuller, Stephen Hansen, and PJ Neal of Harvard Business Review reported on a recent study of 5,000 C-suite job descriptions.
- As the July-August 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review explains, the workplace has evolved so that “strong social skills” are essential for both new employees and members of the C-suite. These include “a high level of self-awareness, the ability to listen and communicate well, [and] a facility for working with different types of people and groups.”
- In “The C-Suite Skills that Matter Most,” Harvard Business Review explains the way that the changing workplace environment demands not just technical skills, but also people skills, especially “what psychologists call ‘theory of mind’—the capacity to infer how others are thinking and feeling.”
Choosing Between Original Source versus Library Database URLs
Always cite the original website whenever possible. For example, even if you’re accessing The Harvard Business Review via the library database because of the paywall, you can still navigate to the native website for the articles you’re citing. Cite the HBR link, not the library link.
Finding a Permalink in the Library Databases
If you have to cite from the library database because an article isn’t on the internet, you must use permalinks (also known as stable links, static links, or permanent URLs). Different databases locate these in different places. For example, in EBSCO you’ll find the permalink on the right side of the screen under Tools:
Proquest places the durable URL in the upper right hand corner:
Creating Permanent Hyperlinks for Sources Likely to Disappear from the Internet - Internet Archive
Job ads, for example, disappear once they are filled. Create a permanent hyperlink and record of an ad by saving the page to the Internet Archive, also known as the “Wayback Machine.”
The Simplest Method Has Two Steps:
- Go to this page and paste the url of the page you want to preserve into the box under the heading “Save Page Now.”
- Click the “Save Page” button.
Visit the Internet Archive’s guide to saving pages for additional methods.
Creating Permanent Hyperlinks for Digital Sources Unavailable to Readers - Box & Google Drive
You can create your own hyperlink by saving web content your reader might not be able to access as a PDF and adding the file to a digital storage service such as Box or Google Drive.
- Save or print entire piece to PDF. Make sure you include key information like the author, date, and website owner.
- Upload the file to Box or Google Drive.
- Create a shareable link by following these instructions:
Synthesizing Multiple Sources
Synthesis means combining different sources to support an idea of your own while clearly articulating the connections between those sources.
Why Synthesis Matters When Presenting Data
If you’ve been asked to gather information so that someone else can make a decision, you’ll want to develop one or more conclusions from your reading. To help your reader understand the main takeaways from your research, quote or paraphrase key information from a variety of sources to support your conclusions. As in all other workplace writing, your task as a writer is to save your readers time; they shouldn’t have to read your sources to determine whether or not those sources actually do what you say they do if you have effectively quoted, paraphrased, and integrated them into sentences and paragraphs of your own.
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Synthesis Example When Presenting Data
Multitasking May be Less Efficient than Doing One Thing at a Time
One study, published in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, showed that only 2.5% of their test subjects could perform two tasks at the same time without reduced performance in one or both of them. What this suggests is that more than 90% of us are fooling ourselves when we think we’re getting a lot done by doing many things at once. According to MIT neuroscientist Earl Miller, in an interview with The Guardian, what we think of as multitasking is “actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly.” Each time we make this switch, “there’s a cognitive cost,” which means that we don’t achieve as much as we could with sustained focus on one thing.
This kind of switching could also have effects beyond our performance on the tasks we are switching between. A survey of multiple research studies by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences acknowledged that further research is needed, but stated that the existing research indicates that people who habitually engage with multiple forms of media at the same time “exhibit poorer performance in a number of cognitive domains.”
Why Synthesis Matters For Persuasion
Synthesis can also help you to demonstrate credibility by showing that you looked at multiple sources. In essence, synthesizing is a way of fact-checking yourself, or of reading and citing from multiple sources to ensure accuracy, a valuable approach if you want to persuade your reader. A reader is likely to be more persuaded by your conclusions if they are supported by multiple credible sources.
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Synthesis Example for a Persuasive Message
Successful Remote Marketing Teams Depend on Supportive and Communicative Supervisors
Economist Nick Bloom, renowned for his research on remote work at Stanford, states, in an interview with The New York Times, that the success of a remote team depends on supportive supervisors and opportunities for occasional in-person communication. This underscores the importance of empowering junior marketers to voice their ideas and concerns while offering clear direction to avoid discrepancies in the creative process. The Washington Post describes this supportive environment as a “counselor-type approach” with a culture of curiosity, openness, and empathy.
Additionally, a study on the impact of remote work on junior staff found that senior-level supervisors provided less feedback when working from home, which stunted the juniors’ early career development. Junior marketers missed valuable learning opportunities, emphasizing the importance of supervisors replicating such interactions remotely to foster growth and development.
How Synthesis Adds Complexity
Synthesis of sources allows you to demonstrate that an issue is complicated and there are multiple ways of looking at it.
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Synthesis Example That Illustrates Complexity
About one in three Americans say that a “four-year college degree is not worth” the cost, according to the Pew Research Center. However, the research shows that public and private non-profit colleges pay off for most students (for-profit schools are much less likely to have a positive return on investment).
The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce found that “bachelor’s degree holders earn a median of $2.8 million during their career, 75% more than if they had only [earned] a high school diploma.” A study from the College Futures Foundation, a California non-profit, found that 79% of “low- and moderate-income students … recoup their education costs in five years or less.” The Economist attributes the perception that college costs have skyrocketed to the difference between “published tuition and fees” and the “net cost” or “what students really pay,” which has fallen, and notes that “college-educated men earn $587,400 more over their lifetime than men who only graduated from high school (women earn $425,100 more).”
Quoting Secondary Sources
Use detailed attribution when you want to cite material from someone quoted or paraphrased in one of your sources (a secondary source or a quote within a quote).
Example
A reporter may interview a communications coach and use direct quotes from the coach in their article. If you want to use a quote from the coach, attribute it to the coach by name, but then explain that the quote came from another source so that readers aren’t confused by a hyperlinked article with an author whose name doesn’t match the source:
When preparing for a meeting, Barbara Miller, a communications skills coach quoted in The Wall Street Journal, recommends “writing down all the thoughts that might distract […] from listening and setting the paper aside until later.”
Providing Attribution for Sources without Hyperlinks
You’ll use sources without an obvious approach to hyperlinking, such as books and interviews. Focus on providing enough information for your reader to find the book or understand the credibility of your interviewee and linking to additional information.
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Book - Author Page
Some authors maintain a web site for their books. When citing, link directly to that page.
Ann Handley, in Everybody Writes, argues that “good writing” is a skill that can be learned, just as “trigonometry or algebra or balancing a balance sheet” are skills that can be learned.
Ann Handley, author and content marketing expert, argues in Everybody Writes that “good writing” is a skill that can be learned, just as “trigonometry or algebra or balancing a balance sheet” are skills that can be learned.
Book - Publisher Page
For books without an author page, use the publisher’s page.
In The Rise of Writing, Deborah Brandt argues that “writing has become a dominant form of labor as it transforms knowledge and news into useable, shareable form.”
Book - Bookseller Page
Books that are out of print may not have an author or a publisher page. In that case, link to the book’s page on an online bookseller’s site, such as bookshop.org or amazon.com.
Interviews - LinkedIn or other Online Biography
It’s impossible to hyperlink the contents of an interview, but you can reinforce the credibility of your interview subject by linking to their LinkedIn page or other online professional biography.
When asked how he feels about Ohio State, Bucky Badger indicated negative feelings by shaking his fist in the air.
Formatting Titles to Help Readers Understand Sources
Commonly understood formatting indicates to readers what type of source you’re using. Use italics for sources that stand alone, such as newspaper, magazine, book, and film titles. Use quotation marks for items that are housed within another source, such as newspaper and magazine articles, and book chapters.
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How to Format Sources That Can Stand Alone
The names of items that stand alone should be formatted in italics:
- Books: Beyond Shareholder Primacy: Remaking Capitalism for a Sustainable Future argues that corporations should consider the damage they cause to people and the planet, in addition to profits.
- Newspapers: The Wall Street Journal is known for covering business news, but also has sections for sports and the arts.
- Magazines: The New Yorker is famous for rigorous fact-checking.
- Music albums: Beyonce’s Lemonade won numerous awards and was one of the best selling albums of 2016.
- Podcasts: Planet Money covers the economy in short, easy-to-understand episodes.
- Television series: Dirty Money is a Netflix documentary series about corporate corruption.
- Films: Office Space lampoons the meaningless drudgery of the corporate workplace.
How to Format Sources That Are Part of Something Larger
The titles of items that are part of another, larger whole go in quotation marks:
- Book chapters: “Deadlines are the WD-40 of Writing,” by Ann Handley, offers useful advice for completing writing projects in a short chapter.
- Newspaper articles: The Wall Street Journal reported on more chaos at Tesla in “Tesla Finance VP Departs in Latest Executive Exit at Automaker.”
- Magazine articles: “Why Gen-Z Will Transform Workplace Culture for the Better” suggests that a new generation of CEOs care more about building a positive culture and work-life balance than previous leaders.
- Song titles: “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey was a hit country song in the summer of 2024.
- Podcast episodes: “When Women Stopped Coding,” from Planet Money, recounts the dominant role of women in early programming.
- TV episodes: “Teddy Perkins,” an unusual episode of Atlanta, features a menacing Donald Glover in mask-like makeup.
- Encyclopedia entries: “Economic Globalization,” in Wikipedia, attributes an increased rate of globalization to improvements in long-distance transportation and telecommunications.