What is a source?

These sources are as relevant to knowledge as water to our health.

A source is something that gives you the information you need. You can find it in a book, on a page on the Internet (which we also call a website). Or even in a video with an interview or documentary where you will find material for schoolwork, for example. You must say where you went to get that information, so the teachers know what you wrote is not invented, that you investigated it. It will count points in your favour in the evaluation.

How can you tell which sources you have consulted?

You can do this saying the title of the book and who wrote it (its author). Or by writing the address of the Internet page from which you took it - this is called a source. You can also place all the sources you have consulted at the end of your work.

DON'T FORGET THAT IT'S NOT WORTH TO COPY WITHOUT TELLING WHERE YOU GOT THAT INFORMATION.

You can copy (or transcribe) parts of the text of the book or website that you are using as a source, but whenever you do. Still, that part in quotation marks (“) to know that it is not your words but that whoever is speaking in the text is someone else. And, of course, it is not worth copying whole pages. Your teachers will also want you to summarize some things in your words to know that you really understood what you read.

Sources are also very important in journalism

Have you heard that there is more than one version for the same story? Yeah. Imagine that there was an argument at recess over a football game. You say that your colleague was missed, your colleague says no because he went to the ball, the friends who are out there are right with one or the other.

If someone from the school newspaper were to report to the scene, they would talk to you, your colleague and whoever was watching the game (the witnesses), so that each one could tell you their version.  So you can better compare all versions, collect more information and get closer to the truth. For all these people he talks to are called information sources.

Journalists have some rules for choosing their sources well and talking to them so that their news is as complete as possible:

• They must have something to do with the news: either they are the protagonists of it, or they were witnesses of what happened, or they can even be experts (a teacher, a scientist or a researcher who understands a lot about that subject and can explain it to those who know less), for example);
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• Journalists must respect what the sources have told them. They cannot invent events that they never understood them or conversations they never had with them. And, whenever necessary, they transcribe the words of these people as if they were speaking. This is called direct speech, one or more phrases that are enclosed in quotation marks ("), and which you may have heard of in Portuguese classes;
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• Most of the time, the journalist says the name of the person with whom he speaks (that is, identifies him) and his profession (for example, a professor, a minister, a director of a company). But when that person's well-being or even his life is at risk if someone finds out that he spoke, or if he asks, the journalist may not say his name. In these situations it is said that the source is "anonymous", so as not to discover who it is;
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• When all the information is gathered, the journalist has to choose the most critical information for the story, avoid giving an opinion.