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| | #[[Bias]] gets in the way of reliability. | | #[[Bias]] gets in the way of reliability. |
| | #Neutrality may not be an antidote to bias. | | #Neutrality may not be an antidote to bias. |
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| − | == Sources and References ==
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| − | When writing articles it is necessary to use primary and secondary source material as references. All source material should be properly cited as to work, author, publisher, and date published. The ''Harbrace Manual'', used in many colleges and universities as a standard of style, is recommended as a guide; this website [http://www.knowledgecenter.unr.edu/instruction/help/primary.html] is also recommended.
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| − | ====Primary sources====
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| − | Original, primary-source documents consist of: diaries; autobiographies; memoirs; interviews with journalists; minutes of meetings; private and public letters; speeches; official records; photographs and film. When citing these sources, write in this manner:
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| − | :Author. ''Name of work in italics''; Publishing company; Location where published. (Date published in parenthesis)
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| − | ====Secondary sources====
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| − | Secondary sources consist of interpretation and analysis of published material, history, and other primary source data. These sources consist of: biographies; encyclopedias; newspapers, news magazines, and news-related websites; journalistic and political commentaries or opinions (this includes web-blogs); literary criticisms of film, books, or poetry (such as ''Cliff's Notes''); scientific journals and papers; textbooks. When using these sources, the same citation rule as above applies.
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| − | Newspaper reports should be considered only as fleeting moments of history as given by a reporter; they can be notoriously one-sided with a perspective that leaves out pertinent facts. They should be used only if the article requires it. When citing a newspaper source, write in this manner:
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| − | :Author. "Title of the article in quote marks"; ''Newspaper name in italics''; Complete day-month-year article published. You must still write this complete reference line regardless of whether or not the newspaper source was retrieved online; online links to most newspapers go dead after a short period of time.
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| − | For scientific journals and papers, do not rely upon a newspaper or journalistic report on them; find and cite the scientific article directly
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| − | ====Partisanship of sources ====
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| − | It's typical of partisans to strengthen their criticisms of a target by claiming a source who is supposedly loyal to the target. That's why Conservapedia gets dozens of pranksters every week claiming to be Christian or conservative.
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| − | The party affiliation of a news source should be irrelevant. All that matters is whether the source has a record of telling the truth. A new source with no track record is useless, especially if it's anonymous.
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| − | Conservapedia is more trustworthy than Wikipedia, because most of the senior staff are real people (not anonymous hacks hiding behind their clever pseudonyms).
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| | == Teamwork == | | == Teamwork == |
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| | A few suggestions about teamwork. | | A few suggestions about teamwork. |
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