As a writer, your work is unique, one-of a kind and sacrosanct. A fact checker is your guard against the outside influences which only seek to confuse and detract. There are three stages by which you can prevent any literary virus, infiltration by spam or bogus sources and lies or worms eating away at the credibility of your work.

The first is good primary research. Most poor reporters think primary research begins with Wikipedia. Although a good springboard for verification, they have a bad reputation for being, well, wrong. Ask Sinbad. A quick call to his publicist would have corrected the rumors of his death. It is not Encyclopedia Britannica. Online searches that are limited to Google are also a bad move. A primary researcher will go directly to the data, the study, the author, the authority to make sure that yes, indeed, there is such as thing as National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day (January 28).

The second is fact checking. This entails taking your piece and matching it against the sources or data that was discovered during the research phase. Contrary to popular belief, this process does not gut a story. You do not lose the message or the beautiful prose. You gain credibility; a solid foundation that lends legitimacy to your work. So a person comes away from reading your work saying: I can’t believe it’s all true-but it is!

The third is proofing. Now, this may seem superfluous-why do this after all that’s already been done? Some writer’s may think: “It’s already been tampered with, proofing is just like doing double duty.” But through making changes or editing the work, it is possible that a train of thought may have gone awry. A new fact or change may beg more questions. The reader may invariably ask for more information, resources and if frustrated will feel the effort of reading your piece was wasted. Additions may be needed. Proofing is the bow on the Christmas present-it ties up the work and makes it a complete package.