The Magazine Writer's Handbook

11. Research, Research, Research

11 Research, Research, Research BEFORE READER'S DIGEST PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE MENtioning that George Washington stood six feet three and a half inches in his size thirteen boots, editorial researcher Nina Georges-Picot was assigned as its fact-checker. She wondered if old George really owned boots that big. But how to find out? First she pored over the New York Public Library's sixteen volumes about Washington. Nothing. Next she studied books, letters and diaries ofWashington's associates. None ofthem cared a whit about George's shoe size. The ardent fact finder called Mount Vernon, where somebody knew about a statue in the Richmond, Virginia, state capitol building that was made entirely from plaster casts of Washington's body. Ms. Georges-Picot called Richmond and prevailed on the building's superintendent to measure George's feet. With boots on, the right foot was ten and seven-eighths inches long, the left eleven inches-a man's size eight boot. Ifone can believe the accuracy ofthe measurement , that's a long way from size thirteen. George Washington's boot size may seem entirely too trivial to have been worth so much of the Reader's Digest researcher's time. But the writer who evidently was caught with the wrong information in his article probably doesn't think so. We hope he went back and double-checked because, if the researcher was right, that tiny foot on such a big man could make a peg for another George Washington article. A good magazine article must entertain. Some of the entertainment is dished out from a service ofcatchy facts, figures and formulations. As our anecdote about Washington's boot size illustrates, they'd all better come from authoritative sources, sources that can be trusted to be accurate and precise. The facts should be not only accurate but plentiful. When we were editors, some of the dreariest stories we rejected were ones in which the authors tried to stretch too little research across too many pages. Many writers we know spend as much time at their local libraries as they do at their keyboards . We make it a rule always to collect more information than we think we're going to use, so we can choose the best and the most apropos in making our points. We think of ourselves not as composers, but as arrangers who assemble other people's themes and counterpoints until they match the available instruments. 157 158 How to Write Your Article A Fact Is Only as Good as Its Source There are at least three practical reasons why writers should stick to dependable sources and keep track ofwhat they are: . IT'S MORE EFFICIENT Let's say that you're researching a story about the shrinking job market. From a chart ofstatistics, you extrapolate that the number ofD.S. workers over sixteen is projected to increase by only about 7X percent over the next dozen years. Then, while organizing or writing the article, you decide it will be more effective to count only the number ofworkers over age twenty-one. You'll waste a lot of time relocating your information unless you also made note of your source: a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that you found on the Internet at ftp:/Iftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/epllabor.force/clfal050.txt. (Ifwe find the information in a printed source, not online, we jot down the title, call number and name ofthe library unless we used only one library in researching the article.) IT'S MORE BELIEVABLE One author writes, "We can expect a labor force increase ofonly 7Xpercent over the next dozen years." Another writes, "The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected a labor force increase ofonly 7X percent over the next dozen years-an average of about half a percent a year." Which sounds more like a fact? Which sounds more dramatic? If the source of your fact is authoritative , its mention lends credibility. IT'S SAFER Ifyou say that we're adding jobs at an average ofonly a half percent a year, without saying how or where you got your numbers, in effect you're personally vouching for the statement's accuracy. If, instead, you include the specific source of your data, you are reporting it. Aside from being more authoritative, it also leaves you practically in the clear if somebody else got the numbers wrong. As we saw in the example about George Washington's boots, a fact...