Never knowingly tell a lie...

There are two levels of inaccuracy (or little lies). The first is being deliberately inaccurate in your writing and the second is being inaccurate by mistake. Both, of course, can damage the credibility of your writing regardless of whether you have written an article, report or book.

Deliberate inaccuracies

Few writers of articles or other fact-based pieces want to tell an outright lie but there certainly may be the temptation to exaggerate or stretch the truth. This type of inaccuracy might result from exaggerating the cost of something or the time taken to complete a task so that it appears more appealing to the reader. The same goes for exaggerating a situation so it appears more exciting.

Exaggerations should be avoided if you want to take pride in your work. Refuse to compromise the facts and refuse to delude your potential readers. Treat them with respect.

Mistaken inaccuracies

Honest mistakes do happen and are the cause of most inaccuracies in article writing. It is crucial to take nothing for granted and to always check your facts – especially if you have relied on someone else for information. Always double check. Make this a standard practice to check crucial facts, including correct spellings of names, correct dates of events, population numbers, ages etc.

You need to be especially careful if you are writing about technical matters if you have little or no knowledge about the subject. In this situation do not be embarrassed to admit your ignorance to your interviewee or source of information. However, ensure you check their facts and, if necessary, recheck.

A note of caution about using the Internet as a source of information – make sure you use only credible websites. The Internet is, of course, a wonderful tool for assisting writers, but you also need to bear in mind that a lot of dubious sites exist that cannot be counted on to supply substantiated facts. Also be aware that there are many variations of spellings and conflicting opinions and information on the Internet. Proceed with caution if you are using the Internet as your information source.