Depending upon your job description, you may or may not be required to check your facts before communicating with the public, professors, fellow employees, foremen, or employers.
In some types of work, fact-checking isn’t an issue. In others it is crucial.
I often hear people on television, both actual people and fictional characters, confidently express “facts” that just aren’t so.
For example, I’ve collected numerous examples of people referring to “people burnt as witches at Salem, Massachusetts.”
Fact: Twenty people were executed on the charge of witchcraft at Salem in 1692, but not by burning. Nineteen of the accused were hanged. One was pressed to death while being tortured, and about thirteen died in prison.
Like gaffs of usage and spelling, the distribution of inaccurate information can also damage your credibility.
