Gramer Girl here, I'm Minyon Fokerti and you can think of me as your friendly guide to

the English language, writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.

Today I have a segment about fact checking and another segment about why we say something

is a watershed moment.

Let's start with fact checking.

This segment is by Edwin Batistella.

The actor Carrie Grant went set of acting that quote, it takes 500 small details to add

up to one favorable impression.

That's true for writing as well.

Concrete details can paint a picture for a reader and establish credibility for a writer.

Details can be tricky however and in the swirl of research in the dash of exposition it's

possible to get things wrong.

Dates, names, quotes, and facts.

I've been doing some fact checking of my own lately for a book project and have a few tips.

If you don't know, don't assume.

Is Garella originally a French word or Spanish?

I once assumed it was French, not bothering to check, but it turned out to be Spanish.

Don't be misled by terminology.

I once referred to the Soviet Revolution as occurring in October of 1917, based on the

notion that it was the October Revolution.

But that's only true on the old-style calendar.

On the new-style calendar, the Revolution took place in November 1917.

...