Attribution: the five-part rule

Attribution under Creative Commons means giving credit in a way that lets anyone understand the work's origin and your rights to use it. The standard five parts are: the creator's name, the work's title, a direct link to the source, the specific licence (e.g., CC BY 4.0), and a note of any changes you made. A common mistake is to treat attribution like a bibliography entry—just listing author and title—which misses the licence and changes, leaving the reuser unsure if they can adapt the work.

To avoid traps, always check that every part is present: creator, title, link, licence, and changes. If you crop an image or translate text, you must say so explicitly, e.g., 'cropped from original' or 'translated into French'. A quick elimination trick: if the attribution lacks a licence or a 'changes made' statement, it is incomplete. Also, beware of assuming a simple URL counts as a source link—it must point directly to the original work, not just a search page.

Remember the mnemonic 'CTL + LC'—Creator, Title, Link, then Licence and Changes. To test yourself, take any CC-licensed image and write a full attribution; then remove one part and see if you can spot the gap. That habit will make the five-part rule automatic in any exam scenario.