The Citable-Passage Checklist (Paste & Score)
Paste a paragraph and score it in your browser against the nine properties of a citable passage — answer-first, self-contained, right-sized, specific, evidenced, and more. A free heuristic to catch the obvious reasons an AI engine would skip your text.
Paste a paragraph and this tool scores it against the nine properties of a citable passage — in your browser, instantly, with nothing sent anywhere. Answer engines cite passages, not pages, so the question for every paragraph is simple: would an engine lift this whole as the answer to one question?
Quick answer
A citable passage is answer-first, self-contained, right-sized, specific, evidenced, single-purpose, plainly written, structurally clean, and sits under a question-shaped heading. Score a paragraph below, fix the flagged items, then read it aloud as the answer to one question.
Score your passage
Paste a paragraph below. It's scored in your browser against the nine properties of a citable passage — nothing is sent anywhere.
Your nine-point score appears here as you type.
What the score can and can't tell you
This is a heuristic, so treat it as a spell-checker for extractability, not a verdict from a real engine. It catches the mechanical reasons a passage is hard to quote — a filler opener, an orphan "this/it" reference, missing evidence, run-on sentences — but it can't tell whether your answer is correct or genuinely original. Pass the checks, then make sure the substance is worth citing.
Where to go next
For the full explanation of each property with before→after examples, read the nine properties of a citable passage. The underlying skill is the Extractability pillar, and the craft of writing the quotable line is in how to write content AI will quote and the answer-first first sentence. It all fits inside The AEO Canon.
How we review
This guideis compiled from each vendor’s own documentation and current independent testing, and was last verified in 2026; we re-check quarterly. Pricing and features in this space change fast — confirm current details on the vendor’s site before buying. We don’t earn affiliate commissions on the tools we cover, and we don’t accept payment for placement.
Frequently asked questions
- What makes a passage citable by AI?
- A citable passage is answer-first, self-contained, right-sized (roughly 120–180 words), specific, evidenced, single-purpose, plainly written, structurally clean, and sits under a question-shaped heading. Answer engines cite passages, not whole pages, so each paragraph has to stand on its own as the quotable answer to one question. This tool scores a paragraph against all nine properties.
- How does the citable-passage score work?
- Paste a paragraph and it's graded in your browser on nine heuristics — does it open with the answer, does it stand alone, is it the right length, is it specific and evidenced, and so on. Each check passes, warns, or fails, and you get a score out of nine plus a verdict. It's a rough heuristic to catch obvious misses, not a verdict from a real engine.
- Is the passage scorer accurate?
- It's a directional heuristic, not a guarantee. It reliably catches the common, mechanical reasons a passage is hard to lift — throat-clearing openers, orphan references, missing evidence, run-on sentences — but it can't judge whether your answer is correct or genuinely original. Use it to fix the obvious problems, then read the passage aloud as the answer to one question.
- How long should a citable passage be?
- Aim for roughly 120–180 words — long enough to fully answer one question, short enough for an engine to lift whole. Much shorter and it's too thin to be a complete answer; much longer and it likely covers several questions at once and won't be quoted cleanly. The scorer flags passages outside the citable range.