When is a source required? How should sources be quoted or linked?

How to reference

I'm going to start off by quoting /help/referencing (disclaimer: I wrote it).

When you're referencing or quoting material that can be found online (such as Wikipedia or similar), please make sure to include a link.
[...]
When quoting from offline material, such as a book, please make sure to always include at a very minimum the title and author of the work. Including a chapter number or page number when applicable is ideal.
Be sure to only quote whatever text is relevant.

The first thing you ask is...

When are sources required?

You should always mention at least once in your post where you're quoting text from. If you're quoting from the same source multiple times in one post, it's fine to include a line that says that all quotes are from the same source (and mention what that source is).

What kinds of sources are good sources?

Try to use sources that are some measure of reliable. This is naturally going to be subjective. Quoting directly from a source such as a book is always going to be ideal; but that's not always possible. If you're going to use an online site as a source, take a look around and see if they in turn cite their sources - if so, it's often possible to just cite the original sources. If that's not possible, you can use the site itself as a source, but be aware that unsourced online material is often unreliable and should probably be avoided if possible.

How should I cite sources? Should I use links where I can? (Keep in mind that we have the Sefaria linker here!)

How exactly you cite is entirely dependent on what you're citing and a matter of personal style.
If you're citing something online - yes, please include a link! If you're citing something available on Sefaria, just using the Sefaria automatic linker is enough and including an extra link is probably unnecessary.

In what situations is it better to quote, and in what situations is it better to paraphrase?

As a general rule - if it's long, paraphrase; if it's short, quote.
Of course, this all comes down to the exact case and it's ultimately up to you how much you decide to quote, but I'm going to use an example here.

I'm quoting from the Mishna, Brachot 1:2 (Mishnah Brakhot 1:2). (If I did that correctly, at least one of those should have the Sefaria popup.)

מאמתי קורין את שמע בשחרית? - מתי מתחיל זמן קריאת שמע בבוקר? משיכיר - אדם, בין תכלת ללבן

When do we say Sh'ma during the morning prayer? - when does the time start that we can say Sh'ma in the morning? When you differentiate - a person, between light blue and white.¹

Kehati goes on to explain that telling the difference between light blue and white is associated with the mitzvah of tzitzit.

Here, I used a footnote to mark the source of what I was quoting, with a citation showing exactly where it was from. I marked what was the original text, what was commentary, and mentioned that the translation was my own (which clears up any confusion about where it may have come from).
I quoted a relevant portion, and then paraphrased the rest of the commentary on that last section because it's... quote long. (21 lines of text in my copy, to be precise.) Instead, I paraphrased the important part.

As another example, here's a Wikipedia quote.

If you have no idea what "Sh'ma" is, here's a brief overview from Wikipedia (Wikipedia text licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0):

Shema Yisrael (Shema Israel or Sh'ma Yisrael; Hebrew: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל; "Hear, O Israel") is a Jewish prayer, and is also the first two words of a section of the Torah, and is the title (better known as The Shema) of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. The first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Hebrew: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃), found in Deuteronomy 6:4.

Here, I included a link back to the online source I was citing, as well as what license it was published under.
Wikipedia is often a reliable source, but it's still not ideal; preferably I would have gone and found a more direct source for the information I needed, but as a general introduction to lay out the basis of the topic it was fine.

Those were two examples of citing an online and offline source. The exact styling of your citations can vary; that comes down to individual preference (some people like footnotes, others like subtext in their posts directly underneath the quote², other prefer just stating it before or after as part of the main text...) - the important part is to always provide enough information that someone can go and find your original source from the information you gave without too much effort.

When to quote and reference

(Alternative title: Backup is Important.)

As a general rule: If you're making an assertion in your post that is not common knowledge, back it up.

Now, that's going to sound odd without backing it up, so let me explain.

What do I mean by backing something up? I mean providing something for your post to stand on - so that it's not making unfounded claims.
Backing something up can be done in a few different ways. The two main ways are by providing external sources, and by reasoning it out.

If something is considered "common knowledge", you generally don't need to source that. What common knowledge is, however, entirely depends on the context.

If I'm asking a question about analyzing a specific element of the process of Sotah as outlined in Masechet Sotah, I can probably make an assumption that anybody reading it is going to know at least what the Mishnah and G'mara are - because it's a highly specialized question that's going to be extremely difficult for anybody without that context to understand. However, I wouldn't be remiss giving a broad overview of what Sotah itself is. I'd be giving a general explanation of the main topic while working under the assumption that anybody interested in that question is going to have a certain level of knowledge that's a prerequisite to understanding the question. (In other words, anybody who's going to know or care what Sotah is presumably is already familiar at some level with the works of the Talmud.)

On the other hand, if I'm discussing something that's relevant to, say, the standard text of everyday prayers, that's a lot less esoteric and relevant to more people. In that case, explaining that Shacharit is the name of the morning prayer, Mincha is the afternoon prayer, and Ma'ariv / Arvit is the evening prayer is a reasonable thing to do, because there's a not-insignificant chance that somebody interested in the question might need a refresher.

In either of these cases, though, what's "common knowledge" generally doesn't need a source. Whatever is not common knowledge, on the other hand, probably does. So for instance, I would need to source a reference, in my Sotah example, for what the process is (detailed in the Mishna, Masechet Sotah perek whatever); and in the prayer example, ideally I would include either an explanation ("Shachar" is morning in Hebrew, so "Shacharit" is the morning prayer) or a source for those terms.

Why should I reference?

There are a few different reasons for referencing, and knowing why you're referencing in each case can influence how you do so.

The first reason would be to make sure your information is accurate. If you have an external source or reference to back up your assertions, it becomes much more useful than if you simply make claims. It proves to a certain degree that you're not just making this up on the spot and that you know what you're talking about.

The second would be so that other people can look back and learn. If you're mentioning a topic new to somebody, they may not be able to immediately answer your question or understand your post. But when you provide references and sourcing, people can then use these sources to go and learn about the subject. Your post can serve as a gateway for this person to discover a new topic and already know where to look to learn more. For instance, if you have no idea what I was talking about with Sotah, it's a Biblical way of testing for adultery with a rather involved process. (Now, anyone who wants to learn more about the subject can go look at the Wikipedia link, which gives a broad overview of the subject; and anyone who then wants to go even further in can look at the original sourced (Mishna and G'mara) mentioned in the Wikipedia article.)

Ultimately, referencing should provide a backup for your post as well as serving as a way for someone unfamiliar with that particular niche concept to go learn about it.

posted over 4 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

4y ago

Mithical‭ staff

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