An assistant writes a smooth sentence, puts it in quotation marks and adds a link. The page discusses the right topic, but that sentence is nowhere on it. A relevant link cannot turn the assistant’s wording into the source’s words.
Purdue OWL distinguishes exact quotation from paraphrase and requires attribution for both. NIST also identifies invented content and citations as risks of generative AI. The practical task is to compare the proposed quote with the passage itself.
Use a small example
Imagine this notice, invented for this example: “The workshop starts at 10:00, except on Fridays, when it starts at 11:00.”
A summary saying that Friday’s session begins an hour later can convey the meaning, but it is a paraphrase. It should not appear as the notice’s exact wording. A quote that keeps only the 10:00 opening while hiding the Friday exception can also mislead.
Ask the assistant to separate copied excerpts from its explanation. Open the original document yourself and check wording, numbers, omitted text and the surrounding paragraph. Keep a page number, heading or other location alongside the reference.
Resolve a mismatch before using it
If you cannot find the quoted words, remove the quotation or replace it with a checked paraphrase and attribution. Do not search for a different source merely to make a fabricated quote look supported.
Label a translated passage as a translation and keep the original available for checking. If text came from a scan, compare it with the page image too: an extraction error can change a number or a negation.