Talk:Ruth C. Sullivan

Always cite your work

Just as a helpful piece of advice to any future editors of this article (especially ones new to Wikipedia), it is official Wikipedia policy that all claims in an article must be cited (with the exception of the lead, where it is permissible to summarize information formally cited later in the article).

Citations don't necessarily have to follow every sentence of an article. However, it does need to be relatively clear which citations are backing up which claims. This means the following.

• If you start a new paragraph, it's good practice not to leave claims in the prior paragraph uncited. Even if a later citation covers multiple claims across multiple paragraphs, the reader has no way of knowing this.
• Do not leave a claim uncited merely because a citation somewhere else in the article backs up that claim. You cannot expect readers or other editors to sift through every citation in an article to see if it backs up your claim. Wikipedia's visual editor makes it relatively easy to reuse pre-existing citations.
• Do not leave a claim uncited merely because you think it's too mundane to bother citing or because you feel the claim can easily be verified offsite or within another Wikipedia article. Always show your work.
• Do not leave a claim uncited merely because you are unwilling or unable to take the time to input the citation. Wikipedia's visual editor makes it relatively easy to generate a new citation (or, as mentioned above, re-use an existing one).
• Do not leave a claim uncited when you cannot find a source that meets Wikipedia's quality standards or cannot find a source at all. In fact, in such a case, don't make the claim to begin with. It doesn't matter if you "know it's true." If you can't back it up, it doesn't belong in an article.
• If you make multiple claims within a single sentence or paragraph, make sure that your citations verify them all. This may mean using a single citation that verifies all claims or using multiple citations.

I hope the above tips are helpful and will discourage any further decline in the quality of this article. DoItFastDoItUrgent (talk) 21:12, 24 July 2025 (UTC)