If you find an idea or a concept that fits into an article you are writing, you need to give credit for that bit of content.

This kind of idea or concept could be described as the combination of commonly known facts or ideas in a unique conclusion. There are two reasons why you would give credit.

1. You want to avoid plagiarism.

2. You want to give some validity to the concept in your article.

We put common ideas together in unique ways to come up with unique conclusions hundreds of times a day. The need to give credit comes when you have read someone else's unique conclusion or idea and then used it.

Suppose someone is doing a thesis on the human tendency to help others. As part of that thesis, they want to show that the indigenous people of North America had a system for sharing food. If they happened to read my book about the north, they might write,

The primary reason for village-wide feasting in the Cree culture of northern Canada was not social, but to share.

No one would ever know that this idea came from my book. Without some kind of credit this is just an idea that the writer dreamed up. There is no validity. But, the same sentence, with a bit of credit given, is much more authoritative.

James Collins, in One Man's Mile, implies that the primary reason for village-wide feasting in the Cree culture of northern Canada was not social, but to share.

In a thesis, a foot note would be added to allow the reader to look further into this statement. On a website, this form of credit for a concept or idea is adequate.

Next, we'll look at any easy way to give credit for a direct quote.