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Fact-Checking

How to work with writers and editors, mark up copy, and track down information and sources

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SYNOPSIS
Fact-checking facts:

  • Fact-checkers are the last line of defense before ethics scandals, lawsuits, and major motion pictures.
  • Fact-checking is a time-honored way to wedge your foot in the editorial door.
  • Fact-checking is a valuable freelance skill and an endless source of party trivia.

In this 18-minute video, you'll learn how to become a stellar fact-checker.

DURATION/TIME
1 video
18 minutes total running time

Speaker

Katherine Wessling has fact-checked for magazines including Esquire, Newsweek International, Ladies' Home Journal, Us, In Touch, Star, and Teen People. She was associate research editor at Glamour and headed up the research department at Good Housekeeping. Katherine has also done primary research for Sky magazine, Chic Simple books, and playwright Eve Ensler (for The Good Body). She's attended and/or participated in numerous MPA and ASME seminars on fact-checking. Her other journalism experience includes: contributing literary editor for Swing, senior editor at Speak, and editor-in-chief of (ai) performance for the planet. She's also been a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition. (View her courses.)

photo credit: Susan Shacter

Table of Contents

Sections Length Size
PREVIEW
  Highlights FREE!
Watch a free preview of Fact-Checking. 		1:41 6 MB
  To watch the videos below, please click here to purchase or login. Requires Flash 7 or higher.

Crib Sheet (PDF)
Download this outline and use it to take notes. Includes resources and other information.
  Fact-Checking 18:19 71 MB
 

1. Truth Warriors
What fact-checkers do. A brief history of fact-checking in modern journalism. Credibility and the media.

2. Guidelines for Fact-Checking
Different publications have different fact checking standards. Your job is to be super-nitpicky. Rough guidelines for fact-checking. Information a writer is asked to submit.

3. Sources and Experts
How to make sure that the sources and experts used as backup are legitimate, or if they even exist. What to ask when you speak to a source, and how to verify quotes. When the Internet is an acceptable source.

4. Secondary Sources
Magazines, newspapers, and TV news shows are secondary sources. Steer clear of them, but if you can't, here's how to use them. Rules for using studies.

5. Plagiarism
Plagiarism: how to find it, and what to do if you do.

6. Working with Lawyers
In addition to plagiarism, be on the lookout for other copyright violations, including incorrectly used trademarked names and libel. Why having a fact-checking manual is a bad idea.

7. Photos
Make sure that all information in photo captions is correct.

8. Headlines, Subheads, and Pullquotes
It's your job to make sure that the information condensed in a headline is factually correct. You can save many a fact simply by qualifying it with words like reportedly, allegedly, about, around, less than, more than, may be, could, and can.

9. Marking Up Copy
A research editor should be able to go back to your working copy and see exactly how you checked each fact and why any changes were made. Here's how you do it and what marked-up copy looks like (the crib sheet has a sample).

10. The Publication Process
Checking multiple versions, final signoff, sighs of relief.