The Art of Writing, Part 5: Fact-Checking

Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, a play or a poem, you need to check your facts to prove you're reliable source. If you're writing about post-World War II Paris in 1946, you'll want to make sure you capture the Louvre as it looked then, without the I. M. Pei-designed glass pyramid built in 1988. Even if you lived in New York City on September 11, 2001 and are writing a memoir about your experience on that day, you would want to be careful about describing area landmarks, like the Oculus and the Vessel, which did not exist on the day of the terrorist attacks. Your article about Mickey Mantle would lose credibility if it confused his rookie year (1951) with his breakout year (1952). Likewise, a short story set in 1961 Republic of the Congo would irritate informed readers if you mixed up Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba's murderer, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, and Lumumba's successor, Joseph Iléo. Get your facts right!

One effective fact-checking method is using multiple sources, which is easy enough in these days of pervasive information availability. (If only everyone would employ this technique when reading ridiculous conspiracy theories, such as former US President Barack Obama's citizenship!) While I am a fan of Wikipedia, I would not end my research there. Say you wanted to write a piece about the birther phenomenon surrounding Obama's citizenship. You might want to read the nearly 12,000-word Wikipedia entry on the topic, but you could also refer to several of the sources listed in its 281 footnotes. It would help to read facts and opinions from both liberal and conservative sources, and even extremist ones, to understand the range of ideas on the issue. Then you need to be skilled in separating fact from fantasy.