What an editor should look for when fact-checking
True fact-checking is a very comprehensive type of edit. While some publications may have a full-time fact-checker, organizations with smaller editorial staffs now often fold fact-checking into another position’s responsibilities. For contract work, it’s important to clarify if this is part of the project scope, especially for scientific or technical material.
A full fact-check determines the accuracy of all names, dates, titles, statistics, and other references to verifiable items. It goes beyond that, though.
What do you look for in a full fact-check?
Early in my career, I took a temporary position as a fact-checker for a national science magazine, where my supervisor asked me to use two different colors of highlighter for any copy that referenced facts to be checked—yellow for obvious facts and pink for assumptions. The former might be “The leopard can run up to 36 miles per hour,” a stat which can be easily confirmed on several reputable websites.
An assumption is a more subtle fact to check. For example, take this claim: “Mother leopards are dedicated to raising their cubs, helpless at birth, for about two years.” This sentence contains three assumptions and one numeric fact:
Mother leopards give birth (they are mammals). True.
Baby leopards are called “cubs.” True.
Cubs are helpless at birth. Not the most scientific language, but true.
Mother leopards take care of their cubs for approximately two years. True.
If you wanted to get deeply into the weeds, is “dedicated” an appropriate word for animal behavior, or is it an anthropomorphic take on the leopard’s habits? (The answer probably depends on the type of publication and its audience.)
This is a very simple example, but if you were editing material about a creature that isn’t so well known, the need to verify becomes more obvious. You can see how fact-checking at this level can be a full-time job!
What do you look for in a light fact-check?
If you are doing a copyedit or a substantive edit, you may wish to clarify with your manager or client whether fact-checking is needed. However, I tend to do light fact-checking as a matter of course, because small errors so often slip through, and fact-checking is pretty easily done on the internet—as long as you use trustworthy sources (and ideally, more than one). I consider this part of my review and do not charge extra for it, but some editors do.
Look for the 5 Ws, or what I call “facty facts.” Who, what, when, where, and why. All names, dates, numbers, geographical places, composition titles, job titles, news items, quotations or sayings, and so on.
Make no assumptions. Editing an article about a conference in Canada? Don’t just double-check the spelling of “Québec.” Check whether your client wants you to use the French “e” with an accent mark (l’accent aigu). Go to the conference website and check whether the event is really being held in that city—perhaps the marketing copy is partly cut and pasted from the previous year, and this year’s conference is located in Toronto.
Seriously, don’t make assumptions. I copyedited a piece recently where the author wrote “hip hop” without a hyphen. Because I thought it was supposed to be hyphenated, I almost changed it…until I remembered that the author, who is a friend, knows much more about music than I do! Sure enough, both usages are correct, depending on what person or entity you are asking. AP style hyphenates, but the Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx does not. (There are a few articles about this style point, in case you’re curious.)
As an editor, I often have to question my urge to correct an item without double-checking. I might think I know…but maybe I don’t. That little pause of “hmm, maybe I should check this just in case” is your editorial instinct—listen to it.
The point of a fact-check
If you’re an editor, you value clarity and meaning. Fact-checking is not just about precision for its own sake, though; it is about meeting the goal that every editing tactic strives to accomplish: communicating something helpful, important, or inspiring to the reader.
If the reader is distracted or misled by unclear statements or factual inaccuracies, all the writer’s eloquence can be wasted before the reader gets the message, clicks through the call to action, or understands a new point of view.
Like any skill, discerning what to fact-check and listening to your instincts as an editor improves with practice. Enjoy the journey, because you’ll learn something with every piece you edit.