Introduction
Chapter One: Why We Fact-Check
Chapter Two: What We Fact-Check
Chapter Three: How We Fact-Check
Fact-Checking Magazine Articles
Fact-Checking Other Media
Navigating Relationships with Editors, Writers, and Producers
Fact-Checking on a Budget
Fact-Checking Your Own Writing
Chapter Four: Checking Different Types of Facts
Basic Facts
Numbers
Quotes
Concepts
Analogies
Images
Physical Descriptions
Sports
Historical Quotes and Stories
Product Claims
Foreign Languages
Foreign Outlets
“Common Knowledge”
Headlines and Cover Lines
Facts from Anonymous or Sensitive Sources
Conflicting Facts
Gray Areas
Litigious Material
Plagiarism and Fabrication
Chapter Five: Sourcing
People
Interview Recordings and Transcripts
The Internet
Maps and Atlases
Press Releases
Books
Newspapers
Academic Literature
Chapter Six: Record Keeping
Paper Backup
Electronic Backup
Chapter Seven: Test Your Skills
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix One: “Test Your Skills” Answer Key
Appendix Two: Suggested Reading and Listening
References
Index
Copyediting
“The volume of publishing is so overwhelming—and the quality often questionable—that readers easily give up on an author’s piece as soon as they hit a little bump and go find something else to read. Borel’s guide builds a strong argument for including fact-checking in the publishing process and then teaches you the full process.”
Best Reference Titles of 2016 | Library Journal
“An indispensable resource in the age of ‘fake news,’ this slim but informative title offers writers, researchers, and journalists best practices for fact-checking in a wide variety of media.”
Chicago Reader
“Many of the tips she offers here are useful not just to fact-checkers, but also to reporters and researchers, particularly the chapter on checking different kinds of facts. . . . She's especially good at explaining the different levels of attribution, which many journalists don't completely understand, and how scientific studies and statistics can be misunderstood and manipulated. She reiterates one piece of advice so often it almost
seems like a mantra: When in doubt, ask an expert.”
Reference Reviews
“Students, teachers, journalists, professional fact-checkers, bloggers, librarians and consumers of media in general all stand to gain valuable knowledge and insights from this book.”
Well-Read Naturalist
“For writers, both professional and amateur, Borel’s Guide should be considered essential. . . . And lest it may be thought by some ‘I’m not a writer; such a book doesn’t really pertain to me,’ if you gain nothing more from reading it than an improved ability to rationally and systematically assess the veracity of what you read or hear reported via whatever medium though which you gather your news of the world, your time spent reading it will be most certainly well spent indeed.”
David Zweig, author of Invisibles and former Condé Nast fact-checker
“Every journalist, editor, and nonfiction book writer should have a familiarity with best practices of fact-checking. This is an exhaustive yet highly readable guide by a knowledgeable author.”
Peter Canby, author of The Heart of the Sky: Travels Among the Maya and New Yorker fact-checking director
“Few aspects of journalism are as complicated as fact checking. Brooke Borel’s mantra is ‘Think like a fact checker.’ This useful book will help you navigate the shoals.”
For more information, or to order this book, please visit https://press.uchicago.edu