Hint # 12 Favor fact checkers
January 25, 2009 by health writer
Filed under Write Health Articles for Magazines
MAGAZINE HEALTH WRITING BASIC 12 part – 10
When you write for top national magazines, your article will not only have to pass muster with a committee of editors, it will be combed over and vetted by someone called a fact checker. You’ll need to provide footnotes or endnotes (my favorite), preferably in a second document. (Ask your editor when she wants this document sent.)
Even the simplest health story can test a writer’s mettle for accurate reporting. Health “facts” can be so capricious, with trusted sources contradicting one another and even the strongest expert opinions changing with new information. That makes old news and misinterpreted research results as easy to pass along as a high school rumor. So really, the fact checkers are your friends. Also, editors like assigning articles to writers who make their fact-checkers’ jobs easier.
Curious to know how your articles rate with fact checkers? Here’s a test to find out:
Fact Checkers’ Popularity Test
(Hint: answer yes to everything)
- Do you use primary research instead of settling for what you read in other people’s articles, even credible information from national publications?
- Do you question secondhand quotes (even the ones you believe to be common knowledge), and look for additional information to back up controversial quotes from expert interviews?
- Do you use summaries of studies appearing in books, other magazines, or newspapers ONLY as background information, not as primary sources?
- If you do find studies or research quoted in other people’s stories that seem perfect for your article, do you get copies of the actual studies or abstracts and/or the researchers’ phone numbers to give to the editor?
- When you talk with experts, do you confirm the spelling of names, titles, degrees, and other credentials?
- Do you prepare interview sources for the probability that someone from the magazine may contact them during the fact-checking process?
- Do you let editors know of any potentially difficult situations or special instructions regarding sources?
- Are you careful to let editors know whether experts you’ve interviewed about a product have financial interests in the products or companies producing them?
- Do you make a fully annotated version of each article indicating where all information came from with phone numbers for all sources?
- Do you send copies of backup material with your completed manuscript?
Eight out of ten “yes” answers will please fact checkers and encourage future assignments from happy editors. The extra credit you’ll get for all ten “yes” answers is a loyal fan club of readers who trust your byline wherever they see it. Not a bad bonus for a little due diligence.
Happy Health Writing,
Kathy Summers
[See the full list of 12 hints here: 12 Hints for Magazine Health Writers]
I just finished reading 12 Hints for Magazine Health Writers. Although I’ve freelanced and written for high school nutrition books for almost 20 years, I still found a lot of useful advise in these articles as I dip my toe in the heatlth-writing field. Thanks for a well-written, well-thought-out series.