Real cases

Two of the ideas you practise, meeting in one real situation. Choose, see what actually happens, then reflect.

A case · you decide

Caven & Verith — a 16-year-old on the school paper's fact-check desk

The idea in play: a summary that drops the source's caveat turns a careful claim into an overclaim.

The source: "In a study of 40 mice, a compound slowed tumour growth." A student's summary: "A new compound slows cancer growth."

Verith checks that every claim traces back to the source. The compound and the slowing are there.

Caven guards the caveat. He compares the two sentences and asks what a reader would believe about who was treated.

How should the desk rate the summary?

Judge a summary →

A case · you decide

Fabb & Tenet — a 17-year-old checking summaries for a science newsletter

The idea in play: a claim that is simply not in the source is a fabrication, however plausible it sounds.

The source says a new bike lane "was followed by fewer reported crashes on the street." A summary says "the bike lane cut crashes by 50%."

Tenet holds the source as the ground truth and asks whether each claim still holds against it.

Fabb checks each claim against the source, word by word: the number, and the verb.

What is wrong with the summary?

Judge a summary →