fact-check-a-draft

name	fact-check-a-draft
category	write
description	Audit a draft's factual claims, dates, names, numbers, quotations, and citations against current primary sources, then produce a corrections log and clean revision. Use when someone asks to verify an article, report, script, newsletter, or public statement before publication.

fact-check-a-draft

Make every checkable claim traceable to evidence appropriate for that claim. Preserve uncertainty and keep source support separate from stylistic confidence.

Inputs

• Obtain the exact draft, intended publication date, audience, citation style, and editorial owner.
• Ask which claims rely on interviews, private records, calculations, or embargoed material.
• Save a versioned copy before editing and record the review date.

Procedure

1. Extract checkable claims into a ledger with draft location, exact claim, claim type, risk, and status. Include names, roles, dates, numbers, comparisons, quotations, causal language, and superlatives.
2. Prioritize claims that could cause harm, change a decision, damage trust, or become outdated quickly.
3. Match sources to claims. Prefer current primary documents, official data, original research, direct records, and attributable firsthand evidence.
4. Open and read the supporting source in context. Do not rely on search snippets, another article's citation, or a headline alone.
5. Verify quotations word for word and preserve intended meaning. Check permission, attribution, and whether editing or translation changes the sense.
6. Recalculate numbers from the cited inputs. Confirm unit, denominator, population, time window, currency, inflation treatment, and rounding.
7. Mark each claim verified, corrected, qualified, unsupported, disputed, or time-sensitive. Record the source URL or artifact, publisher, date, and relevant passage or table.
8. Seek an independent source for high-risk claims when practical. Represent credible disagreement rather than selecting the source that best fits the draft.
9. Revise the draft narrowly. Keep editorial changes distinct from factual corrections so the author can review meaning and voice.
10. Re-read the clean version for new claims introduced during correction, broken citations, and mismatched dates or names.
11. Deliver the corrected draft with a concise corrections and unresolved-claims log.

Boundaries

Do not expose confidential sources, copyrighted material, or private records in the evidence log. Never turn lack of disproof into verification. For medical, legal, financial, safety, or reputational claims, use current authoritative sources and escalate unresolved high-risk statements to a qualified reviewer.

Done

• A claim ledger records status, source, date, and rationale for every material checkable claim
• Quotations and calculations are verified against original context and retained inputs
• The clean draft contains working citations and no unresolved high-risk claim presented as fact
• A corrections log distinguishes factual changes, qualifications, disputes, and still-open questions

Then use edit-your-own-writing for structure and voice after the factual record is stable.