NWE Help: Web: Authoring: Citations: Information to Note

NWE Home :: Help :: Web :: Authoring :: Citations

If you wish to use images from the web, or reproduce portions of other copyrighted works in hypertexts, you should gather the following information as you are preparing your work. Then take a look at the next few pages, or the instructions provided by your instructor, to learn the specific citation method required.

• The original source of the work. If the work you wish to use was found on the web, the full web address is necessary -- not just part of the address or an email address associated with the work.

  Example: if you would like to use a photo of Fred Taylor from ESPN's player profiles in your essay on sports injuries, the address to cite is http://football.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?statsId=4259 -- NOT just "http://espn.com" or "ESPN". See some other examples.

• Any relevant dates for the work. If the work is from a periodical, look for the date of publication and the volume and number (if present). If the work is a web site, look for a date on the site. If no date is present on the site, include a statement like "Viewed 3/9/2001" in your notes, since web content can change frequently.

• A brief description of the work. This description is for your own reference, but is useful if you are "collecting" many works to draw upon while completing your assignment. You don't have to include this description in your citation, but it's a good idea to have it handy.

• The author of the work. If an author is not named on the page or location where the work is found, you should seek to find an author or editor on an adjacent page, at the front of the collection or anthology, or by contacting the producer of the work.

  Example: No author is listed on the page http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html. However, several email addresses appear on the page -- you could send a message to these addresses and ask who the author of the work is. You could also identify the author as "The Free Software Foundation", following the copyright listed on the bottom of the page. See some other examples.

Generally speaking, your notes should include as much information about the original source of the work as possible. This will ensure that as you begin to develop your hypertext, essay, or other text, you'll be able to make citations as completely as possible. Here is an example of the notes we took while constructing these examples