A short guide to linking to resources & source material
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Quick tips for appropriately linking to external resources in blog posts.
This is not a full-citation guide. There are many of those out there. This is for more casual posts where you want to be helpful to the reader, but you don’t need to comply with rigorous academic standards.
Books:
List the title and the author. You can also add the year of publication. Include a link to the book. There are a few options:
- The book website
- Book listing on a sales site (like Amazon)
- Or both.
Why do this: Allow readers to purchase or view more details about the book.
Example:
Creative Workshop by David Sherwin (& Mary Sherwin), 2010
Online Articles & Posts:
List the title of the article, the author, the source (unless on a personal site) and the date of publication. Link to the article.
Why do this: Allows readers to make an informed choice to read the linked article and gives them the ability to do so.
Example:
Want To Help Kids Solve Problems? Have Them Design Their Own Solutions, by David Sherwin. Fast Company, 07/2013
People:
List their full name and link to some way to learn more. This can be a personal site, a LinkedIn profile, a Wikipedia page, or their social media account. You can also do more than one.
Why do this: Allows readers to learn more about the person and follow them on social media.
Examples:
Mary Sherwin • Site • LinkedIn • Twitter
Mary Sherwin • @marysherwin
Organizations:
List the name and link to a related site. This can be a company site, a LinkedIn profile, a Wikipedia page, or their social media account. You can also do more than one.
Why do this: Allows readers to learn more about the organization and follow them on social media.
Examples:
Ask the Sherwins • Site •Slideshare • @askthesherwins
Sketchnotes and other commentary/notes using external sources:
On the sketchnote itself: include the title and author of the source material, and the event if appropriate. Also be sure to sign and date the sketchnote.
When posting the sketchnote online, include the following in the written part of the post: The title of the note, the original source (book, event and date, article name,) author and affiliation (as appropriate.) You can do this inline or in a caption if it makes more sense.
Why do this: Allows readers to visit the source material, learn about events, follow new people, works for SEO…so many reasons.
Examples:
Sketchnote of The Lean Startup, by Eric Reis. Part 1 (Vision) section 4 (Experiment)
Sketchnote of Designing Diverse Fictional Landscapes by Using the Past and Present to Inform Futuristic Design, by Hannah Beachler, DDA, Production Designer. Keynote talk at UX Week 2018, August 21, 2018 in San Francisco.
I wrote this article as a quick reminder for folks new to blogging, especially for students.
