Editing Tips: Checking Your Sources Online

As a proofreader, you may need to look up information online, such as reference formats or jargon, when working on a document. And this makes the internet an invaluable resource. But the internet is also full of very dumb things. So, how can you be sure the information you’ve found is trustworthy? And what should you look for when checking your sources online?

In this post, we offer a few tips to help proofreaders judge the credibility of information online.

3 Tips for Checking Sources Online

Key questions to ask when checking your sources online include:

1. Who produced the content?
   Is there a named author whose credentials you can check? Is it published by an authoritative organization (e.g., a college or major publisher)? Is it an official website for the relevant organization? Or is it an anonymous blog post? If the latter, be cautious! The information might be correct, but it is far better to look for an authoritative source.
2. Does the site list or link to its sources?
   Can you look them up to verify the information? If not, see if you can find the information presented elsewhere with a source (the more sources that back up a point, the better).
3. Is the site professional and up to date?
   Is the writing on the site error free and well presented? Is the tone professional and unbiased? Has the site been updated recently? If it is a referencing issue, does it refer to the latest edition of the style guide? If not, double check the information.

Keep the above in mind when looking up technical terms, referencing formats, obscure grammatical rules, or any other information you need to know while proofreading.

Remember, though, that fact checking isn’t part of proofreading, so this only applies to things you look up while working. You don’t need to check your client’s sources for them.

Wikipedia and User-Generated Content

Sites where users contribute content, such as Wikipedia or Stack Exchange, can be useful for answering questions about style and grammar. However, not everything everyone says on these sites is accurate. As with other online sources, then, you should check whether:

1. The user has provided relevant sources to back up their answer.
2. You can find the information reproduced elsewhere online.

The problem is that some people have strong opinions about English that don’t entirely reflect modern usage (e.g.,  those who insist we should use the rules of Latin to determine “correct” English grammar). Thus, a pinch of skepticism is always wise in cases like these!

Using Ngrams Effectively

Google’s Ngram Viewer is a handy tool for checking how common words are in different dialects (e.g., comparing variant spellings in American and British English).

But these results are based on the Google Books database, which is slanted towards scientific literature, so they won’t always reflect how words are used in everyday language. For more on Ngrams, see our post on how to use it effectively as a proofreader.

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