I use other sources to answer some questions, is that allowed on Socratic?

I paraphrase the text and put the URL below the answer.
May there be a guideline or rule regarding this?

Thanks

2 Answers
Aug 6, 2017

I have seen others do that and I have referred to other sites.

Explanation:

Socratic disapproves of copying and pasting from anywhere. We are expected to write our own answers.
But if references are appropriate (and they are if you paraphrase someone else's work) then I would include them.

Here is a link to the Creative Commons group Socratic belongs to.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

It really covers using Socratic material elsewhere more than using non- Creative Commons material at Socratic and vice-cversa.

Aug 6, 2017

Here's the deal.

Explanation:

To expand on Jim's points, I should mention that we do have a guideline against posting copied content, check it out

https://socratic.org/answering-basics

The idea is that you should not include copied content, which refers to word-for-word copies of other sources, i.e. copy/paste content, in your answers. Keep in mind that adding a link to the original source does not cut it, either.

So no copy/paste content! Ever!

If you want to use other sources to enhance your explanation, you can do so without including actual content from the source in your answer. In other words, you can post links to other websites as long as

  • your answer contains original content, i.e. content that you've created (original explanations)
  • you don't actually copy/paste any paragraphs from the other website

You can always paraphrase text if you want, but make sure to do it properly, don't just change a word here and there or the order of the sentences.

I highly recommend adding sources for content you paraphrase!