Check the facts
This page explains the Facts & sources panel: the check that a rewrite kept your facts, and the tools for figures with no source.
Facts kept
After each rewrite, PlainSpeak lists the facts in your original and checks the rewrite for each one:
- amounts, percentages, dates and other numbers;
- links, email addresses and @handles;
- quotations of three or more words;
- code.
The panel shows Facts kept, such as 12/12. Anything that went wrong is listed in two groups:
- In your source, missing here: a fact the rewrite dropped.
- Here, but not in your source: a fact the rewrite added. Check these first: a model can invent a number.
The check is forgiving about form: "40 %" matches "40%", "1,000" matches "1000", and "three" matches "3".
The check runs when a rewrite finishes, and again a moment after you stop editing the rewrite by hand.
Claims
PlainSpeak also looks for claims that need a source: percentages, and figures in the millions or more. For each, it checks the same sentence and the ones around it for an attribution, such as a link, "According to", a date in brackets or a footnote.
- No source given lists figures with no attribution.
- Attributed to nobody in particular lists figures credited to "studies", "experts" or "a recent report".
- Figures from your own work, such as "our survey", and named sources are left alone.
Find a source
Select Find source next to a claim, or Find sources for all of them. PlainSpeak asks a search model where each figure came from, then opens the pages it names and checks that the figure really appears there. Nothing is marked as checked on the model's word alone.
Find sources needs an OpenRouter key. It never runs by itself.
Check a link
Under Links in this copy, select Check next to a link. PlainSpeak opens the page and looks for the figures the link is meant to support:
- every figure appears on the page: the link backs up the claim.
- not on the page: some figures are missing; read the page.
- could not read the page: the page did not load, or blocks automated reading.
The match is exact apart from spaces and commas, so a page that writes "$1.2 million" does not match "$1,200,000". Read the page when in doubt.