Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Stats: Attribution

How do you know that 62 percent of 113.1 million American households have one or more computers?

Did you go door-to-door to those millions of households, and find out yourself?

No. You know that because the U.S. Census Bureau told you, via the press release and stats from which you wrote the story.

So, let's attribute it like this: Today, around 62 percent of 113.1 million American households have one or more computers, the U.S. Census Bureau said, or this: according to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, or this on second reference: the bureau said, or another way to do second reference: according to bureau data

For your article to be credible, the audience needs to know from where you got your data. Was it yourself? A credible source? A crappy source?

In this case, it was the government agency that exists solely to statistically track Americans. That's source credibility you want to share with your audience to build your credibility: you're getting your info form the experts.

If the information isn't from your very own first-hand observation, then you must attribute the source.

No comments:

Post a Comment