We're all college students. At most, we've all completed high school. We've been taught how to cite a source. We see hyperlinks in the articles we read online.

So, why aren't we being held responsible when we don't use them?

I have been writing for Rowan University's chapter of Odyssey for about a year and a half. In that time, I have written almost 70 articles. I haven't hyperlinked my sources in any of them. Yes, my cover pages and gifs always have a link to the source, but the actual content?

Nada.

It took me until this semester as I was learning about writing for an online publication and the importance of hyperlinking that I realized the problem. How can we, as writers, as ethical and educated writers, not link our sources?

I have seen articles trend on Odyssey's homepage and articles that don't make it past a handful of views, and there is a severe lack in citing sources.

As a writer, you have to take responsibility for the words you are publishing. Are you going to publish an article about a major current and not actually leave a link for readers? Or include a quote from someone, but not add a name? Even if that person wanted to be anonymous, ethically you must at least write "Anonymous" after that quote.

You have learned how to intext cite. You have learned to paraphrase. Don't be lazy on the Internet because you think it doesn't matter.

The trust is that it matters most on the Internet. You are being published. You may want to include this on your resume, and no one will want to hire a writer that cannot take the time to add a simple hyperlink.

Take responsibility for your actions and for your words. You have an ethical responsibility as a writer to place credit where it is needed. You are taught citing and hyperlinks for a reason, and writing articles like these is that reason.

This is your work in action. Be responsible for it.