The Fact Checker's Bible: A Guide to Getting It Right »

Sarah Harrison Smith has been a fact checker at The New Yorker and head of checking at The New York Times Magazine, where she is now editorial manager. She lived in New York City.

The first book of its kind, The Fact Checker’s Bible is the essential guide to the important but often neglected task of checking facts, whatever their source.

Today, everyone is overwhelmed with information that claims to be factual. But even the most punctilious researcher, writer, student or journalist--not to mention the lazy or deliberately mendacious ones--can sometimes get it wrong. So checking facts has become a more pressing task. But how to go about it?

The Fact Checker’s Bible covers:

*Reading for accuracy
*Determining what to check
*Researching the facts
*Assessing sources: people, newspapers and magazines, books, the Internet, etc.
*Checking quotations
*Understanding the legal liabilities of getting it wrong
*Looking out for and avoiding the dangers of plagiarism

For everyone from students to editors to journalists, the methods and practices outlined in The Fact Checker’s Bible provides both a standard and a working manual for how to get the facts right.

Library Journal

Have you ever been handed a job description and thought, "Now I just wish someone would tell me how to do this?" Smith, a former fact checker for The New Yorker and currently the head fact checker for the New York Times Magazine, has filled the void with an excellent resource for researchers, writers, and fact checkers. Smith delivers a well-organized and easy-to-read text on the arduous assignment of "getting it right." Writing primarily for those in the publishing industry, she uses real-life examples to show why fact checking is needed, how to identify potential errors of fact, and where to go to check source material. Smith tackles issues of plagiarism, fabrication, libel, and malice, as well as procedures for checking both nonfiction and fiction writing. The final chapter lists resources for credible fact checking. Invaluable not only to fact checkers but also to authors, journalists, and researchers; recommended as a reference for all libraries. Ann Schade, Powers Memorial Lib., Palmyra, WI Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.