Fact-Checking and Source Credibility
A single debunked or misattributed fact can undercut a judge's trust in the entire speech. This lesson covers how to vet sources and catch errors before competition.
Evaluating Source Credibility
Check whether a source has relevant credentials, whether the publication is peer-reviewed or editorially vetted, and whether the claim is corroborated by at least one independent source. A single sensational headline or a single blog post is not enough support for a central claim in the speech.
Cross-Checking Before Finalizing
Before locking the script, review every factual claim and confirm it against at least one other credible source, since studies get retracted, statistics get outdated, and numbers get misquoted as they circulate online. This is especially important for numbers and statistics, which are easy to misremember or misquote.
The Retraction Check
For speeches built around a specific scientific study, savvy competitors periodically search whether that study has since been retracted, corrected, or seriously disputed by follow-up research, since a headline study can lose credibility months after a speech was written.
A speaker's draft includes the claim 'bees can recognize human faces.'
She traces the claim to a single blog post with no citation. Digging further, she finds the original peer-reviewed study, which actually shows bees can distinguish between different human face images in a lab setting, a narrower and more accurate claim. She rewrites the line to match the actual finding rather than the exaggerated blog version.
1. Why is a single blog post generally insufficient support for a central claim?
2. True or False?
"It's good practice to cross-check factual claims, especially statistics, against a second source before finalizing a script."
Answer all 2 to check.
Verify every central claim against a credible, corroborating source before locking your script.