Quote Mine Check

Quote mines are usually pretty easy to detect which is why guilty parties usually try to obscure their sources by not citing them properly. Fortunately is easy enough to simply copy and past chunks of text into Google in order to figure out where they are coming from. The standard Itinerant Lurker quote mine check is that anyone quoting an “authority” should be able to explain:

1. Provide some context (either the following and preceding paragraphs or a summary of the author's general position.)
2. Provide the date 
3. Provide the actual reference information 

If you can’t provide the above information then, quote mine or not, you should not be trying to use someone else’s authority to advance your point. Go back, learn your material, cite your sources, and return with a well-informed argument.


Lurker