You already know how to check whether something is free to reuse. Today you will learn to write a proper reference, which is a credit that lets anyone find the original and check that you were allowed to use it. First you will sort some badly written credits and work out what each one is missing. Then you will write a few references for your own sources.
Read these two made-up credits for the same photo.
Weak: "Photo from the internet."
Strong: "Harbour at dawn" by Orla Byrne, https://freeshots.example/h441, free to reuse with credit (CC BY 4.0 licence), accessed 4 March 2025.
A good credit answers four questions:
- Creator: who made it?
- Link: where can someone find the original?
- Licence or permission: are you allowed to use it, and what rules must you follow?
- Date: when did you look at it?
With a partner, take 90 seconds. Which of the four questions can the weak credit not answer? Which of those would be hardest to find out later, and why?
A good reference helps you avoid plagiarism, which is pretending someone else's work is your own. It also respects intellectual property, meaning the things people create that belong to them by law.
Each card below is a badly written credit for something made up. Your teacher will go through one card with the whole class, the Harbour at dawn photo, like this:
- Read the card. What could a stranger still not check?
- Decide which box it goes in.
- If you think two things are missing, pick the one that stops someone finding the original or reusing it safely.
- Agree on the exact words you would add to finish the credit.
After that, you will sort all four cards yourself in Class Play, on your own device, starting with the one you did together.
The aim is to spot a broken credit in under ten seconds and say how to fix it.
Credit it right: what is missing?
Your teacher will put a game code on the board: type it in on your device to join. Now everyone sorts all four cards on their own device, starting with the card you just did together as a warm-up.
For each card, choose a box and say how sure you are: just checking, fairly sure, or certain. The surer you say you are, the more points you stake, or bet. If you are right you win those points, and if you are wrong you lose them, so being certain and wrong costs the most. You can change your answer until time is up.
The points go to your whole team, not just to you. The game puts you in a team at random.
When the round closes, your teacher will ask someone to explain the answer.
Class Play
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