The importance of getting all your facts right in your story or book can’t be overstated. If you want to lose all credibility with your readers, make one mistake. That one error will make your readers doubt that anything you wrote is accurate. Your readers will think, "If he/she can't get that fact right, how do I know anything is correct?" Here's an example:

I once read an interesting book about the plight of grizzly bears, which have been hunted and have had their land encroached on until they're in danger of disappearing. At one point the author mentioned the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and noted the date of the attack—Dec. 7, 1942. See a problem there? The incident had occurred on Dec. 7, 1941.

So I immediately thought, "How do I know how many other errors are in this book?" And from that point on I lost much of my interest.

Now, I'll grant that in all probability the 1942 date was probably just a typo; that's an easy mistake to make. But it doesn't matter. The mistake was there.

Here’s an example from a news web site of how mistakes, even typos, destroy credibility. See if you can spot the error.

"Deputies identified the pickup truck crash victims as Mark Coughlin, 32, and his wife, Isabel Coughlin, 31, of Jefferson County. Both were ejected from the vehicle. Isabel Coughlin was found underneath the truck, while Brian Coughlin was located beside it."

In the first sentence the victim is named Mark; by the third sentence he was renamed Brian.

Why would anyone believe anything they read on this site? They wouldn't, and if they can't believe what they read they won't return to the site.

Get your facts right or face readers’ wrath

If you need more incentive to write accurately, consider this—make a mistake and your readers will come down on you like a starving lion attacking a gazelle. This is an e-mail a reader sent after spotting what was probably a simple typographical error on a web site:

"The article says this flight (the first scheduled airline flight) was in 1941. It was in 1914. Get your fingers on the correct keys of the keyboard. Even a drunk redneck could type better than that. Whoever wrote this is a disgrace to the aviation community, news agencies, and people with an eighth-grade education."

That's pretty harsh but, human nature being what it is, people will ruthlessly criticize even the smallest mistake. And it's not much fun being on the receiving end of such criticism.

So, how do you avoid factual errors? Here are a few ideas:

Fact check within the story

Check every fact against the same fact in the story. Every first name, last name, time, place, age, day, date, street name, and other proper nouns should be checked against every other occurrence in the same story. Practicing this simple procedure would have avoided the error in the crash story.

Fact check outside the story

Again, every fact and proper noun should be checked against a reliable outside source. Even if you're "sure" that you have a fact correct, you might be mistaken. For example, everyone knows that the two-letter postal abbreviation for the state of Alaska is AL, right? Nope. AL is for Alabama; Alaska is AK.

One caution about checking with sources, whether online or offline—they can be wrong, too. You'll recall that on Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot Lee Oswald as Oswald was being transferred from police headquarters in Dallas, Texas, to the county jail. In reporting the story, one television reporter repeatedly referred to Oswald as Lee Harold Oswald. Oswald's correct middle name was Harvey. So why did the reporter call him Harold? Because a law enforcement public information officer had assured him Harold was correct. The reporter had his doubts as to whether Oswald's middle name was Harold or Harvey, but went with the incorrect information. 

Write around the fact, if necessary

So what do you do if, despite your best efforts to get a fact right, you're not quite sure? You do what journalists call "writing around it." That means to write your story in such a way as to leave the uncertain fact out. That doesn't mean that you write an incomplete story; it means that it's not always necessary to include every single bit of information. For example, in the Oswald situation, the reporter could have simply called him Lee Oswald.

So take pains to get every fact right. It’s better to spend more time and effort than to risk being called a “drunk redneck.”