Citing Sources

As an improving public speaker or presenter, you should practice citing your sources until it becomes second nature for you. Remember that an effective citation tell readers who said or wrote it, where the information can be found, and when it was published. Citing a source of support this way probably takes less than ten seconds, but it adds much to your credibility as a speaker.

When citing a web site, limit the address to nationalgeographic.com. Don't recite the www or any /slashed additions. But, do give the full web address to the home page (i.e., Mothers Against Drunk Driving at madd.com). Don't be afraid to cite as often as you can.

Learning Exercise

Formulate a source citation for the following sentence taken from Time Magazine, Oct. 19, 2009, p. 16: "Less than 20% of schools cook school lunch from scratch; many rely on packaged reheatable foods."

© Frank Richardson, 2009.

email: swpubs@xmission.com

web: frank-richardson.com