It’s usually something like “{cardname} deals 1 damage to target player.” so you know the source is the card, but it can also be “Target player loses 1 life.” in which case there is no source. This is important for effects like “Prevent one damage from a black source.” or “Whenever a Human deals damage to you, destroy it.”

Also creating a token is usually an extra sentence with text like “put a 0/1 green Plant creature token onto the battlefield”. It’s very precise about it’s color and even mentions if it’s colorless.