Take, for example, a February 21st story from the Washington Post regarding a new US Department of Agriculture rule that says poultry and meat processors have to inspect their meat and factories for listeria, a germ that can cause fatal illness. Cites an authority, the Agriculture Department, for the truth of what it is saying, that meat and poultry plants will have to conduct inspections for listeria. If we doubted the truth of the article, we could contact the Agriculture Department and ask them. Nonetheless, the article from the Washington Post is not a scholarly one. The article was not refereed.
Citations allow readers to repeat the author's research so that it can be checked.
This is information that the Washington Post asks us to take on trust and for the simple, and very good, reason that newspaper stories are generally brief, to the point, because readers don't have a lot of time. If you are on-campus, to view this story, click here . If not, click here for directions on how to view it. Note that the article begins with a discussion of the methods used to obtain the information that will be presented in the body of the article. Note that the article interrupts its narrative to make frequent internal reference to the source of information.