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Fact Checking, Verification & Fake News

This guide was created by the Research Center at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism

Common Errors and Frequent Sources of Error

Common Errors

  • Numbers and statistics (mixing up “billions” & “millions”)
  • Names of people, titles, locations
  • Ages
  • Historical facts
  • Superlatives like “only,” “first” and “most”
  • Dates

Frequent Sources of Error

  • Working from memory
  • Making assumptions
  • Second-hand sources

Source: Writing and Editing for Digital Media, Brian Carroll, via Google Books